A Wake Up Call
by XxDarkXBeautyxX
Summary: Zetsu is wounded and as he barely hangs onto life, he comes across a beautiful girl training by a waterfall. When he falls unconscious, the girls conscience gets to her and she heals his wounds. Her voice woke him up. ZetsuxSakura
1. 01: Beautiful Smile

Right foot.

Left foot.

Right foot.

Left foot.

Zetsu's white part was chanting this in his head, trying to ignore the sterner side of him, who was currently scolding him for letting down his guard. His body was cut up pretty badly. He had gone to devour someone one of his teammates killed.

Unfortunately, the person was just playing dead and had caught Zetsu off guard. He had managed to eat the person in teh end anyway, but now he was badly cut up. His black side was complaining about a pain in his eye, but he kept ignoring him and trudged on.

It was getting harder to see though. _'I can't believe I let this guy catch me off guard...'_

He was supposed to be the strongest member of Akatsuki, but he's never been caught off guard like that. So the first time in his life he had decided to just eat without any attachments, and his meal just so happened to still be alive.

Disgusting too. He hated eating live people.

"I have to get to the hideout and get this healed." He said to himself.

"Well maybe you shouldn't have let your guard down." His other side said. "It's your own fault."

"Just be quiet for now."

As he went on, he thought he heard a noise. He hoped it wasn't an enemy. Because he had to go in that direction to get to the hideout. Deciding it wasn't worth fretting over, he went towards the noise, feeling a bit curious.

Before he could make it, he collapsed in some bushes. His breathing got heavier and he closed his eyes. But, almost like a wake up call, he heard a voice. His eyes forced themselves open and he forced himself to sit up. He moved some of the bushes, and he felt his eyes grow wide when he saw someone playing in the water, their hands glowing blue, and their clothes discarded on a nearby rock.

Sakura stood on top of the water, her pink hair flowing in the wind, and her feet glowing blue as she put chakra into them to stay on top of it.

She was at ther 12th level of healing. She had to hone it with water. It was a self healing lesson.

And she was covered in bruises and scratches. So she had plenty of things to practice on.

She dived into the water, and then came up out of it like a beautiful sea animal coming out of the water for some nice fresh hair. Her wet pink hair jumped behind her, and her eyes were closed.

She brought her hands out of the water, and surprisingly enough, water was connected to the chakra coming out of her hands, and it followed after them. She spun her body around, the water following, almost like a dance.

The water swirled around her body, and some of the bruises seemed to heal.

_'It's not enough' _She thought to herself.

She floated gently to the top and seemed to float onto the tips of her toes. She balanced herself on top of the water. One of her arms behind her, the other in the air as she gathered a good amount of the water into her palm, pushing some of her healing power into it.

She spun around again and her cuts disappeared, along with the bruises, just leaving some minor scars.

She fell back into the water, and panted heavily. She seemed pleased.

Zetsu was watching with wide eyes from the bushes. He wasn't a pervert. He had actually found that just rather enchanting. Just like a lovely dance performed by a lovely vixen who was trying to lure him into his trance.

Sakura didn't notice the intruder yet, due to his weak chakra._ 'I should be able to do that without water soon'_

She climbed out, just in a pair of tight black shorts and a white bra. She put on her red shirt and the rest of her clothing. As she sat down, she sensed something very thin in the air. Her body tensed.

"Who's there!?"

Zetsu had still been watching her, but he had looked away respectfully when she started to dress. When he heard her question, he didn't hide himself. He came stumbling out of the bushes. She gasped, a hand coming up to her chest as if he had scared her.

"You're... Akatsuki..." She whispered, noticing his cloak. 

He said nothing. He couldn't say anything. She was confused, but then noticed his state of unconsciousness. As he had stumbled out of the bushes, his eyes had closed. He had fainted!

_'I can't just leave him there...'_

Curse her good heart.

Sakura sighed and grabbed her canteen, filling it up with water. She also soaked a piece of cloth she had in her medical kit. She turned him over onto his back, and put the dampened wash cloth on his forehead. He had a fever, so this should help.

She soaked her hand in the water, though it was still wet from her water healing, and she set her hand over his heart, concentrating her healing power. The one she had just learned herself. It was supposed to be for self healing, but she felt kind of obligated to put extra effort into healing this guy.

He hadn't tried to hurt her or Naruto. She didn't recognize him at all.

All she knew is that he was wearing an Akatsuki cloak, which meant he was associated with him. Which meant she probably shouldn't just let him die.

_'But he hasn't done anything yet to deserve it'_

Which was true. All he did so far was eat the already dead people. It's not like he actually killed them. Of course, he had to kill that last man, but merely out of self defense and all that.

Sakura was unaware of any of this, though, and just did her job as a medical nin.

A while later, Zetsu began to wake up. When he opened his eyes, he saw that beautiful girl staring down at him. He blinked in surprise and realized that he was no longer in pain, and there was something wet on his forehead.

He sat up and the wash cloth fell into his lap. He stared down at it and then looked up at her.

"You... Helped me..."

She smiled gently at him. "You are with the enemy, yet you've done nothing wrong, so I couldn't just leave you there."

"Th... Thank you." Zetsu said to her.

The two just stared at eachother for the next few minutes, until Sakura picked up the wash cloth, breaking their stare. She quietly redampened the cloth and then put it back on his still heatened forehead.

"Why would you help someone like me?"

"Someone like you?"

"Yeah. I'm... I'm a criminal." Zetsu caught her stare again. "And I'm just a... I'm not even human."

"I've yet to see you do anything criminal. And you're human enough to me. It's not like I base my opinions on looks."

Zetsu felt something weird inside him when she gave him that beautiful smile. He opened his mouth slightly and said the first thing that came to mind. And as he said it, Sakura blushed. His words repeated in her head several times.

_**"You have a beautiful smile..."**_


	2. Authors Note

_**Authors Note**_

Okay, I know this doesn't really count as a chapter, but I'd like to give you some news. This was intended to be a oneshot, but half of the six reviews I got were asking me to continue this story. So I decided it would be fun to poke around at this pairing and continued on with the story. You should get a third chapter soon, so look forward to it .. If you have any ideas, or requests, then go ahead and say so... Email me at crimson. because I prefer to be contacted by email, unless you are reviewing my story, then just review.


	3. 02: Not The Same

Zetsu sat there watching Sakura. He looked a lot better then before, but could still feel the impact of his earlier fight weighing heavily upon his shoulders.

As he watched her kind features, he realized that they were really different. She was the one who is friends with the Kyuubi, training so she can protect him from people who wanted to kill him. And Zetsu _worked_ with the very same killers. He had not actually killed before, he only ate what his teammates left behind, and he tracked them.

You could call him an accomplice, but he was never the killer.

But yet, he felt far away from this woman. She had never killed and from her position in life, she most likely felt appalled by those who did do it. How could she not see him as a criminal when he clearly was one?

"How are you feeling?" The girl was suddenly closer, kneeling in front of him. "Excuse me... Mister? Can you hear me."

"Zetsu."

She blinked in surprise. "What?"

"My name. It's Zetsu."

"Oh..." Slowly a smile etched across her, and she tilted her head, pink hair following with the change of direction. "I am Haruno Sakura."

"Sakura..."

"Oi." A darker voice spoke. "What are we doing here with this... Child? We must return home at once."

"What was that?" Sakura didn't recognize the voice, yet it was clearly coming from Zetsu.

"Oi, be quiet." Zetsu hissed to himself. He looked at Sakura. "Sorry. My split personality likes to interupt sometimes."

Sakura frowned, clearly confused by this new information. She was kind of confused as to why he was saying this. Criminals wouldn't normally just spill out information like that. He could've easily just said it was him speaking and that she was being delusional, she would've believed it. Of course, she had a split personality too, with Inner Sakura bundled in her head, but hers couldn't speak out loud.

Speaking of which, it drew out and exclaimed, _CHA! This guy is cute for a plant!_

A veil pulsed on her forehead, and she tried to tell her inner self to shut up.

During this, Zetsu watched various expressions cross Sakura face. His lips nearly twitched into a smile but, unused to the action, they quickly seemed to change their mind and stopped a few seconds later before a full smile could be produced.

As she mentally argued with herself, he turned his eyes into a different direction. His soft look faded and he just stared out for a minute before looking back to Sakura.

"Excuse me, Ms. Haru-"

"Call me Sakura."

"Right. Sakura." Zetsu had momentarily paused, but kept on. "I appreciate your help, but I see my teammates. They're far away and won't get here for another half hour or something, but I would not want you to be here when they do."

Sakura seemed surprised. "You... You can-?"

"I have a special spot in my group and I can see very far."

Sakura merely frowned again in reply. This guy was way too weird to be in Akatsuki. Not only did he have a plant surrounding his head, his skin was green, he had two personalities, AND he was kind, but he was warning her to go. He could've just thanked her, went on his way, and she'd be dead within moments. There was no way she'd be able to handle Akatsuki on her own.

But instead of protesting and questioning this, she merely nodded and stood up. She was fully aware of his eyes upon her form as she went around and gathered all of the stuff she had brought here.

"Why...?"

Zetsu blinked in surprise as she stopped before him once more. He sighed and closed his eyes, knowing what she was asking to know.

"Well you've helped me. And... And I could not bare to have to eat another pretty face."

Sakura didn't know whether that should flatter her or not, so she merely whispered a thanks. She stayed there for a minute longer, just staring at him for a minute, until she saw him jerk his head. Without another word, she darted into the bushes.

And just like that, she was gone.

Zetsu stared at the spot she had just been in, before he closed his eyes and stood up. He couldn't dwell on the girl. He had been a few inches from death and she had saved him from it. Her foolish mistake to heal and set free an S ranked criminal.

About ten minutes later, he had met up with Tobi.

"Come, foolish child." Zetsu instructed. "We go now."

"Yes!"

**End of Chapter**

_**I the author shall speak in itacilized, bold font. I have decided that this is before Naruto returns. Sakura is 14, and is several months away from Naruto's return. Tobi is Zetsu's subordinate [[ I don't quite know the time frame, and just compromised . I am very happy with all the reviews I got for just the first chapter and I would love to get to know you! So if you want, you can contact me at crimson. **_


	4. 03: Thinking About You

_**Heh, I got a little mixed up in the second chapter. I said it wrong. I know his skin is half black and half white. It's just sometimes I forget because the plant thing is huge and it happens to be green so I'm thinking about that. And yes, Sakura is 14, yet I don't know how old Zetsu is. To me, it doesn't really matter.**_

**\\Start Chapter//**

"Pleeease?! Please?!"

Zetsu let out a loud groan as his energetic subordinate bounced beside him, begging for him to recommend him to his Akatsuki superiors. The plant like creature sighed, but continued to ignore Tobi. This didn't phase the little guy and he suddenly jumped in front of Zetsu.

"Come on, Tobi wants to join!" Tobi raised his arms into the air. "Tobi is a good boy!"

Zetsu patted the locks of black hair as he swept passed him. "Yes. Tobi is a very good boy. But Deidara is hard enough to handle. I don't think the leader would be able to handle you."

From behind that orange mask, Tobi pouted a little, but dropped the subject for now. He didn't want to irritate his master now. He seemed kind of off for some reason.

_'I wonder if Sakura is okay'_ Zetsu frowned a little.

"What's with the sad face, danna?" Tobi asked, speeding up a little to keep up with the fast pace.

Zetsu realized that he had started speed walking and hastily slowed his steps a bit, causing Tobi to sigh out of relief.

"It's nothing, Tobi."

It was quiet, but Tobi pressed the issue. "Is it about that girl?"

Zetsu stopped in his tracks. "How did you...?"

"Er, well Tobi didnt' mean to spy, but yeah... I saw her leaving the clearing you came out of."

"Hmm, you're a lot like me Tobi." Zetsu's good side smiled a little, but he could hear his other side murmering obsanities about Tobi under his breath. "But don't worry about it okay?"

"All right."

"Sakura?"

Sakura's eyes widened and she looked over towards her silver haired teammates. She blinked and then realized he was looking at her with that look. The look he always gave her when she was spacing out and he wanted to know why.

Sakura smiled. "Don't worry about it Kakashi-sensei. I was just thinking."

Kakashi made a noise, and went back to his food. He wasn't one to press into someones business and she seemed really sure of herself, so he might as well not bother her about it. Though he made the mistake of just 'not bothering' Sasuke about his mark and look how that turned out.

Thinking about that made him rethink. He sighed and turned his head back towards Sakura. She hadn't touched her food, and was just staring down at it.

"Sakura, seriously. What's wrong with you? You came back from training like this."

"W-Well I guess I'm just a bit discouraged." Sakura lied. She scratched the back of her head quite nervously. "I didn't get very far in that medical training."

"Why?"

Sakura set her hand down. "Um, I just kind of got distracted. It's nothing, okay?"

Before Kakashi could press the matter, she had pulled money out of her wallet, set it down on the table to pay for her ramen, and then left the room. She didn't really know why she was so distracted like this, but-

Oh hell. Of course she did. She couldn't get Zetsu out of her head. She had only met him once, and that was now, and not only that but she hadn't spent that much time with him.

_'I shouldn't of healed him'_ She thought. _'He's one of the ones after Naruto, I read about it in shishous office'_

The sun blared down on her and she let out a slight sigh. She reached up, wiping a bit of the sweat from off of her forehead. As she walked passed a bench beneath a Sakura tree, she sat down under it, glad for the shade.

"Man, what's wrong with me? What is it about this guy that-?"

"This guy?"

Startled, Sakura looked up anxiously to find the target of the voice. "Um..."

The voice asked, "What guy?"

Sakura sighed. "You're so nosy, Ino..."

The blonde grinned and sat down, sliding an arm around Sakura's shoulder. "Tell me all about it."

Zetsu and his student continued on for a while until they finally got to the Akatsuki hideout. Tobi wasn't really supposed to come with him since he wasn't a member, but Zetsu trusted him and he was one of the best people on the team so no one would protest as long as he kept Tobi in his room and out of the way.

"Come on, Tobi."

"Yes danna!" Tobi said excitedly, following him into the hideout.

He always loved this place. Tobi's mask swung this way and that, keeping his face concealed quite nicely as he got another good look at the place. They passed a blonde, who threw them an annoyed look.

Tobi had always liked Deidara. He seemed so cool. Deidara acted like Tobi annoyed him but he was always happy to show off his bombs to the kid because he seemed so into it. And Deidara couldn't hate anyone who was so into his art.

"Stop being distracted, Tobi." Zetsu nudged him so that he was forced to look away from the blonde that captivated him. "You can see Deidara later."

"Okay." Tobi waved to Deidara. "Bye sempai!"

"Don't call me that!"

Deidara's voice lacked convinction considering he liked what Tobi called him, and his yell faded away to just echos as Tobi and Zetsu continued down the hallway.

They stopped in front of Zetsu's door and they both went inside, the door being closed behind them softly.

"So who was that girl?" Tobi asked as he sat down.

"Her name was Sakura." The black of Zetsu spoke, ignoring his other sides protest. "We were hurt and she healed us."

"That was nice of her!"

He scoffed. "Yeah right. She probably just wanted to see if she could get some information-"

"Did not." Zetsu's good side cut in. "She was a nice lady. I would've died without her."

Tobi smiled from behind his mask. "I guess you owe her, danna."

"I... Guess I do."


	5. 04: Tobi's Big Mouth

_**Some girl named FeatherEars gave me some corrections. Well a couple of them were wrong. It is 'passed'. Past refers to something that's happened BEFORE. Like past, present, and future. And little things such as replacing periods with commas wasn't all that noticeable to anyone who isn't LOOKING for mistakes. So... please, try not to correct little things like that or I might have to take it as criticism. And about the break thing. In the original document I had put a little line thing in between to break them. I didn't notice it didn't show in the actual chapter. So it's not my fault that it looks kind of muddled. So I don't know what to do when I split up POVs.**_

_**Anyway, I don't own Naruto [[ . Sasuke does , and I am only doing this for fun, not profit.**_

**//Start Chapter\\**

Sakura couldn't concentrate.

Her eyes narrowed and she punched a tree. It cracked, but didn't break. She let out a frustrated groan and pounded it again. Thanks to her anger, this time the tree fell over from the force of the blow. This seemed to make her a little happier.

But not completely.

She sighed and sat down, eyeing a squirrel that had fallen out of it's home in the tree. She had forgotten to check for animals this time.

She frowned and set her hands over the twitching animal. A light green glow came to her hands and she concentrated more comfortably this time. Someone was hurt, so she had more inspiration. A few minutes later and the squirrel had come back to life. As soon as it did, it ran away from the girl who had knocked it's home down.

_'Sorry little squirrel'_

Sakura looked away from the departing creature and slipped her gloves off. She put them in her pocket and then stood up, dusting off her clothes a little. A lot of bark and dust always gathered on her clothing after she's punched down a tree.

_'I wonder what Kakashi-sensei does during the hours he keeps me waiting here'_

Sakura let out a huff of annoyance and leaned against an upright tree. She sighed and looked down to her wrist, half expecting for there to be a watch there.

No watch.

She looked up to the sun, squinting under it's bright light and heat, as she tried to figure out the time from it's position.

It was 3:00. And that meant that her beloved sensei was three hours later to practice. Which also meant that he should be there any min-

"Yo."

Sakura jumped a little. "You're late!"

"Heh, I know," Kakashi sweatdropped and raised his hands. "I just wanted to tell you that I'm going to be focusing on my own training for a while and Tsunade told me that she wanted your attention more focused on her."

"What do you mean?"

"She just says that you could use some more training." Kakashi didn't even notice the broken tree. He had yet to find out that Sakura had the same strength as her master. "So I will be seeing you. Probably when Naruto comes back."

'_Naruto...'_

Sakura remembered her energetic teammate, and she smiled a little when she remembered that he went out to work hard. As Kakashi disappeared, she realized that she should be working twice as hard as she was now.

She just had to get rid of this distraction.

By now, she wasn't even sure what was distracting her anymore. Zetsu shouldn't be on her mind. She didn't know him. And he's probably forgotten all about her by now.

_'That's right,'_ Sakura frowned. _'I will train harder for Sasuke-kun!'_

She pulled out her gloves once more and kept them clutched in her right hand. She raced off towards her masters office to get in some more training. Practice makes perfect.

**[[Change POVs**

Zetsu sat on his bed, a little bored. Tobi had run off to go play with Deidara, or that's how he phrased it anyway, therefore Zetsu was all by himself. His darker side was ranting about how irresponsible he was being for trusting a kid, and he himself was just trying to ignore it. That was kind of hard when you had nothing better to do then listen just in case he decided to suggest something a little more useful.

"I mean really! He wants to become Akatsuki?" There was a scoff. "He wouldn't last doing what we do."

"What do we do?"

"Well I meant Akatsuki in general. We're kind of hunting bijuu soon." It was quiet for a second. "Well the leader is actually very sketchy about that..."

"Pein-sama is waiting for the opportune moment."

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't call him by his name! That's bad luck!"

Zetsu rolled his pupil-less, yellow eyes as he put a hand over his mouth to muffle the rant of his other side. Oh how he wished he could keep him quiet some other way. But alas, he could not. Not that he disliked his other side, but they often differed in opinion.

"Zetsu!"

Zetsu snapped out of his thoughts and hastily put his hand down away from his mouth as he looked towards the doorway. He saw Sasori there, the small redheaded kid who only came out of his scorpion thing when he was in his hideout. Even then it was rare to see him in this form when he was out of his room.

"What is it Sasori?"

Sasori narrowed his eyes at the lack of respect. "The leader wants to see you."

"Very well." Zetsu stood up. "I'll be on my way."

Sasori gave no response and just left the room to go to his own. Zetsu had never really liked that guy much. He didn't ACT cocky, but you could tell he was. He may act like an emotionless bastard but that's just what he hid his true cockiness behind. He just thinks he's invincible. Zetsu hoped that someone would knock him off his throne.

"Don't think poorly of your teammates."

Zetsu ignored his other half and went out the door. He headed down to the far end of the hideout where his leader was waiting in the dark shadows. He had his most prized member, the only girl of the Akatsuki, hanging by his side. She did not speak to Zetsu, and just stared.

"Zetsu." The leader reached up and ran his fingers through his orange hair. "I need you to do something."

"Yes?"

"My plans are coming together perfectly so far. I need you to use your spying abilities for some bigger use. I need information on Konoha."

Zetsu furrowed his eyebrows, suddenly remembering Sakura. "Why, sir?"

Pein seemed a bit annoyed at the question, but replied, "Because we have none. And that's where the 9 tails live. Obviously we're doing something wrong because not even Itachi was able to capture him."

"Actually it would've been easy, but this is the only beast we've encountered that actually has friends to protect him."

Once again, Sakura popped up into Zetsu's head.

"Exactly." Pein closed his eyes. "Now go."

"Yes sir."

Zetsu turned around and walked away from the leader. He didn't like this. How was he supposed to get information on the village? He could easily sneak in, but who was stupid enough to take that kind of risk?

No one.

Zetsu made it to the entrance after a good ten minutes walk, and he exited the hideout after making sure no one was around. He sat down on a rock outside and thought about it. He could most likely just go into Konohas forehead and find some idiot who had wandered out. He'd just spy on them until they let loose some information he wanted.

_'If I'm lucky, that will work. Hmm, I wonder if I'll see Sakura..'_

**[[ Change POVs **

"Are you sure that's what you saw, Tobi?" Deidara asked apprehensively.

"Yes sempai!" Tobi bounced up and down. "It was a pretty girl with pink hair."

Deidara smirked. "Thank you. You are a good boy, Tobi. Hmm.."

"Yeah!"

'_Now I can tell the leader why Zetsu has been acting weird. He'll reward me for sure'_

Deidara kept his thoughts to himself, not wanting to disappoint Tobi by saying he was going to use this information for his own self gain. Sure, Tobi wanted to become Akatsuki, but he had way too nice a personality and would surely be upset. And whether Deidara was an evil criminal or not, the idea of an upset Tobi kind of made him a little fidgety.

So Deidara showed off a few of his bombs, glad that Tobi never got tired of the same thing, and then, with his ego fully bloated, he headed off to go find the leader. He peeked around the corner just as Zetsu passed by to go do what he was told to.

Deidara smirked for the second time in ten minutes, and then went right up to the leader. His sober attitude quickly disappeared. The leader always made him kind of antsy. Those whirwind eyes of his were kind of nerve wrecking.

"What is it, Deidara?"

"I've got some news, yeah!" Deidara knew the leader hated his weird speech, but couldn't help it. "You remember when Zetsu was sent off to eat that girl Sasori no danna killed!?"

"Yeah."

"Well she wasn't really dead yet, and when he went to, er, devour her... She attacked him and he was so caught off guard she was able to beat him up and run away!"

Peins eye twitched. "He... Let... Her... Get... Away..."

"Yeah, and that's not even the best part, hmm!" Deidara was excited. "This pink haired girl from the leaf helped him and he's totally in love with her..."

"Excuse me?"

Deidara sweatdropped. "Er.. Well I might be exaggerating, yeah. But still..."

Pein frowned thoughtfully. "Hmph. Well Deidara, you might just have to take care of this girl for me."

"It would be my pleasure, un."


	6. 05: Lips Are Sealed

Zetsu was someone who could get very suspicious of people. He took his spying seriously and no matter what, he could remember every little detail about someone. If something, even one little thing was out of place, he'd get suspicious. He knew all the personalities of his teammates. For instance, he knew if Tobi was even half as quiet as usual, even if that meant he was still cheery, it meant something was wrong.

He knew Sasori only wore half smiles, and when you saw those rare half smiles, it was because he had just perfected another contraption or puppet of his.

And he also knew how Deidara acted when he was up to something.

So when he peeked out his bedroom door after hearing footsteps in the hallway, and saw Deidara skipping passed the doorway with a maniac grin on his face, he got very suspicious. This didn't mean he was a curious person, but something bugged him. So he followed after him.

"Oh hi!" Deidara greeted cheerily as he turned. "Have you spoken to Sakura lately, hmm?"

Zetsus gaze hardened. "What?"

"Oh nothing, un! I just paid her a little visit that's all!"

Zetsu said nothing, but his breathing got a bit rougher. What happened with Sakura? Why was Deidara so happy? How did Sakura even end up on Akatsukis list? Zetsu betrayed no emotion, but he could hear his evil side chuckling.

"Oh, your other mission is put off." Deidara's gleeful smile grew. "Instead, you get to torture our prisoner until she gives up information. Yeah."

**Change POVs**

Chains rattled against the wall. They've been doing that for the past three minutes now. Sakura's hands tugged at them and then she fell to the ground. Her cheeks were stained with burn marks, as were other various places of her body. She wanted to go home, go to Naruto, be around her friends. She hadn't expected to be malled by some blonde on a bird during training alone.

She sniffled, trying to hold in tears. She was certain they would send in someone to 'interrogate' her and she didn't want them to come in here to see her in such a vulernable state of mind. That'd make things worse.

She gave a little gasp when she heard footsteps outside the door. They were coming closer. They sounded so familiar.

The footsteps seemed hesitant, as if they really didn't want to be coming towards.

_'Shannaro! Like hell they do! Just wait until I get out of these chains'_

Finally the door opened and a rather large figure stepped into the room. He was covered in shadows, but he was oddly shaped. Sakura squinted her eyes, trying to get a good look at whoever it was, but the darkness thoroughly hid everything.

But then he spoke. "Sakura."

Her eyes widened. "Zetsu?"

He kept his voice oddly calm. "I've come to interrogate you about your village."

Her eyes hardened. "I see."

"You were wrong about me, you know." His voice had darkened, almost as though someone else was talking. "I'm not any different from the rest of my teammates."

i 'He said something about a split personality' /i Sakura thought, keeping her mouth shut.

Zetsus dark half continued, "I'm not nearly as understanding as my friend here, so I suggest you give me the information I want."

"Over my dead body."

"Oh? So you figured out the rest of the plan?"

Sakura's eyes widened in alarm.

Zetsu chuckled, and walked over to her. He reached up, taking her chin within his hands. She still had a little spunk in her and growled, tossing her head out of his grip. This just drew another laugh out of him.

"Ahh, the student of Tsunade. Should've figured you'd be just like her. So tell me, how far have you gotten in your training?"

She didn't answer. She refused to. No matter how stupid the question was. He was speaking so casually, as if they were on a business meeting or something. She wanted to hear the old Zetsu, the one she healed back at the waterfall.

"Ah, not very far, considering you couldn't beat Deidara." Zetsu let out a disappointed sigh. "Though I guess he didn't leave much room for fighting. You should be more on your guard. You are a medical ninja, aren't you?"

Sakura gritted her teeth, closing her eyes. Tsunade had once told her she was to dodge attacks at all times. If the medic ninja of a squad was out, nobody knew what could happen. She wouldn't be there to heal her teammates when they would need her the most.

Sakura's eyes darted around the room as she took advantage of the silence. She could easily get out of here if she were able to get out of the chains. She tugged at the chains again, but they weren't budging. She knew there was no use trying to use her strength. These things weren't going to break, and she'd most likely just break a few bones in the process.

"Not the talkative type."

A hand shot up, clasping itself around her neck, her head slamming against the wall. She let out a cry, her eyes clenching shut, as if he was trying to shut out the pain. This did nothing, and a trickle of blood slipped from her lips.

She struggled for breath; His palm was placed skillfully against her wind pipe, and she couldn't get any air into her lungs. She gasped, her eyes staying shut effectively as she did so. He found this amusing.

"It's barely been one minute." The regular Zetsu hissed. "Stop it."

"Don't be soft. You're a criminal." The darker voice snapped, before turning to Sakura again. "Unless you want to die, answer me."

Sakura gritted her teeth and gasped for air as his grip on her neck tightened. She decided that answering his little questions wouldn't hurt, as long as they weren't about Konoha. He was awfully weird in his interrogating.

"I've been training under her for over a year now." Sakura whispered. "I... I've been learning more then just medical jutsu."

"Oh? What other kind?"

She ignored the question and said, "I was training, and your friend on the bird caught me off guard. It wasn't a mission, and I felt safe."

"And obviously you were wrong about being safe, now weren't you?"

She spat blood at his face. "Bastard. Let me go!"

"Ugh." Zetsu reached up and wiped it off. "Brat."

"You were so nice before! Just let me go, please! I will not die here!"

Zetsu rolled his eyes. She sure was feisty. If she didn't want to be in this predicament, she shouldn't have helped him in the first place. Though he was curious as to why she did, so perhaps he could-

"Why did you heal me?"

She blinked. "You did nothing wrong to me at the time. And I am a medic nin. It's my duty."

"Hmm..."

Zetsu smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. It was a dark one. He was thinking of the things he could do to her to get her to talk about Konoha. She mentioned that she wouldn't die here, so maybe she was willing to do things if she was sure she would die. Obviously holding her neck like this wasn't getting him anywhere.

He let go of her neck and reached into his pocket. "I could eat you."

She winced.

"But, I prefer slower torture-" Zetsu pulled out a vile. "Got this from Sasori."

She said nothing, but wondered who Sasori was. She eyed the vile. It was full of an odd colored liquid. A venom of some sort? Probably not, but it was a mixture of greens and yellows like the venom of a snake or something.

"Poison."

Zetsu smirked. "Very good, little girl."

He took out a needle and opened the vile. He dropped the lid carelessly to the floor and stuck the needle inside of the vile, thoroughly dousing it in poison. He then looked up at her, and to the needle, which was shining in venom, although Sakura couldn't see it since it was dark. She knew it was there though, and she felt her body begin to shake a little.

"I'm not telling you anything."

"All right. Have it your way."

His hand came forward as quick as lightning and Sakura shouted out in pain as the needle pierced the skin of her upper arm.


	7. 06: Will Of Fire

A scream echoed through most of the Akatsuki. Those dungeons below the base weren't sound proof. From inside a room in the back, Pein winced. His walls were thinnest, mostly because he liked to hear what was going on throughout his hideout.

"Calm yourself, Pein." Said a womans calm voice.

Pein nodded slowly and turned to her. "That Sakura could be an annoyance, Konan."

"If Zetsu doesn't take care of her, would you like me to do it for him?"

"He'll do it, unless Sakura somehow stops him." Pein turned to his door, listening to the sudden silence. "There's no feeling to that man. Tobi must've lied."

----------

Sakura was breathing harshly. She hadn't wanted to scream that loud, but after a few seconds of the poison running through her veins, a sharp pain to the heart had made her scream that loud. She had heard it echo, and she knew that whoever was in here must've heard it. And who knew how many were people were down there, laughing at her pain, loving the sound of her scream.

She opened her eyes, glaring at Zetsu. She had before felt rather fond about this guy. He had been kind to her, he had earned her trust. But she should've known better.

"This is a poison that activates within a few seconds." Zetsu explained in that dark tone. "It should weaken your senses after a sharp pain to the heart."

So far, that was definetely true about it. Sakura winced a little, and said nothing. She had nothing to say to him.

"You won't be able to move... So..."

Zetsu wasn't stupid enough to take the cuffs off her hands, which were chained up behind her back. But he wanted to tease her. So he leaned down and unlocked the chains around her feet.

Sakura closed her eyes and aimed a kick at him, but cried out in pain again. Her body wouldn't move because of the poison. There was pain when she did, and she couldn't bare it. She was only 14, and she was only halfway towards being a great medical ninja. And although Tsunade has gotten her pretty good at crumbling walls and all that, she wasn't strong enough to do anything with this poison in her.

_Naruto..._

He would be ashamed, wouldn't he? Seeing her so helpless like this. Even with a surprise attack, Naruto would've been able to get out of this. She just knew it. She, on the other hand, had no will.

"Are you going to talk, little girl?"

Sakura's eyes widened. "I dont think so."

"Hmm, too bad. I have the antidote in my pocket, you know."

Sakura gritted her teeth and looked down at herself. Strangely enough, even with her body not moving, bruises were painting her pale skin. She furrowed her eyebrows, but couldnt' see much more then a yellowish looking thing on her. It was too dark in here.

"The pain is marking you."

Sakura frowned and looked up. This was a strange potion. She coughed up some blood and her eyes closed. She forced them open again, just to keep an eye on the enemy, but her vision was fuzzying in and out.

He let out a dramatic sigh. "I guess I'm just impatient. I suppose I'll just kill you."

_Leave her alone!_ Zetsu cried in his head.

_Shut up. You aren't doing your job. So I'll do it for you!_

Sakura's eyes widened, and her chains made an odd noise as she closed her eyes, waiting for the hit. Zetsu looked around for a creative way to kill her. His eyes settled on the glass window that they had there for others to watch the torture. But no one was there.

He had to have consent from his other half in order to devour his victims, so he'd have to use some regular way of death. He could feel her watching him, but he ignored it and unscrewed, the glass falling to the floor. He picked it up quite easily.

Now it would've been easy to get out of this. But Sakura was drugged. Her body wouldn't move, and she was chained to the wall. She could've easily used her regular Tsunade like strength to break the glass. She wouldn't get out without cuts, but she would survive. Having it slam against her and break like that... Sure, it would shatter, and it would also kill her that way.

He the glass at her and she closed her eyes again.

And then it hit it's target.

----------------------------------------

Pein looked up, hearing a rather large crash. Sounded like glass breaking. His whole hideout went silent. Deidara was probably shocked at the noise, wondering just what was going on up there. Tobi was most likely scared. Who knows what Itachi and Kisame were doing, and Hidan and Kakuzu and Sasori were probably ignoring it.

Pein slowly grew an annoyed look on his face.

"Great. He broke the glass again, didn't he?" Pein let out a sigh.

Konan said, "Actually Deidara usually blows it up. I don't know why Zetsu had to use it."

"Whatever. Now that room is probably messy with blood. How annoying."

"At least she's dead."

Pein nodded and got up, going to go inspect the blood room, and make sure his subordinate was still alive at least. He needed Zetsu as his spy. Without him, their rituals for the beast might never work because intruders would not be seen by anyone.

He opened the door, and froze. Sakura was out of her chains, on her feet, barely standing but standing nonetheless. There were very few scratches on her body, and her gloved fist was pointed out, as if she had just punched something.

Zetsu lay sprawled on the ground, blood gashing out of a serious wound on his head. The broken glass lay around him. Sakura looked up, blood running down her chin, her green eyes angry, and her face scarred with dirt.

Pein grimaced.

_Crap_

This just wasn't his day.


	8. 07: Lost and Found

Chapter Eight: Smile; It Confuzzles People

**Hey I've finally decided to post little author notes before chapters begin. I keep forgetting about putting up disclaimers and what not. Anyway, this chapter may get a little happier towards the end, I dunno. I'm writing this before I've actually written the chapter. Anyway, I hope you guys like my story. Keep sending me those encouraging reviews. It motivates me to work fast. Also, as I'm sure you noticed, I do use SOME Japanese terms. Mostly I will use the suffixes that they use. Some people find this annoying. Well that's too bad for you then. I might use the word 'Hai' sometimes, because it fits better.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Sasuke does. This is just a rental. No profits are being made.**

Zetsu let out a tired groan and sat up, rubbing his sore head. The room was oddly quiet, almost deafening if it weren't for Sakura's heavy breathing. Her hand fell to her side. Her eyes seemed to almost close, but opened again.

Zetsu stared at her, reaching up. His fingers brushed his wound and he winced, knowing he'd have to get that treated by Konan. He stood to his feet, and looked around. The chains that had previously held Sakura's wrists were unlocked, as if Zetsu had unlocked them himself. They weren't even broken. They were just hanging loosely.

How could that be possible?

Peins tood in the door way, staring between the two. He really didn't feel too bothered. Sakura was no threat to he himself. But he was rather annoyed that Zetsu was weak enough to get himself beat by some teen who was not only half his size, but was exhausted.

"Th-The poison... How did you get... Get rid of it?"

Her voice came out in a hoarse whisper, "I didn't..."

She fell to her knees and onto her face. Zetsu just stared, frozen in shock at the now thoroughly unconscious girl. She had somehow gotten her chains unlocked, and then she somehow over powered the poison long enough to save herself from death.

His eyes widened when there was a gentle clang on the floor.

Zetsu looked down to her fist, the one that she had punched the glass with, and saw that it had opened. A nail file fell out of her now open hand and to the floor. Zetsu narrowed his eyes. He felt kind of proud, almost... If his master wasn't standing there, shaking his head in disappointment.

"I-I'm sorry about that." Zetsu quickly said. "I'll finish her."

"No. Let her go back to her village."

Zetsu's eyes went wide and he glanced sharply at the leader. "What are you talking about?! She can't go. She's-"

"Let her go." Peins voice was calm and simple.

Which meant Zetsu better do it before he got his head chopped off or something. He let out a heavy sigh and picked Sakura up. Pein must assume Zetsu would do something well with her, because he left, not bothering to look after anything, but he did mutter something along the lines of 'And get Tobi to clean this up'.

Zetsu didn't know why his leader had ordered him to take her back to the village. He didn't care though. He wanted nothing more then to keep her safe again. He took out the antedote and injected it into her blood. Hopefully it worked. Since Sasori had given it to him, Zetsu could never be too sure. Hanging around Deidara might've had him thinking about pranks.

Nah.

Zetsu saw her skin color a bit, and he knew the poison must be waring thin thanks to the antedote. As he picked her up, he began to walk out the door, and he thought curiously to himself about this girl.

He could remember the feelings he got as that glass slammed towards her. But she had managed to unlock the chains with her nail file without him knowing. And with the poison rushing through her veins, she had thrown herself forward and slammed her fist into that glass. It had shattered into lots of pieces, most of which aimed towards Zetsu of course.

Which is probably why he was light headed. But it wasn't too big of a wound. Not at all like the injuries Sakura healed just the other day.

_This girl is a lot stronger then she seems. That poison should've kept her down. And with a sudden move like that, she could've died. Let's just hope I wasn't too late in giving her that anti poison_

He could feel her breathing lightly against her chest. He closed his eyes and took in her scent. He figured girls must smell really good all the time. He could detect just a hint of something... Flowery... But most of it was covered by the dirt and blood she was caked in. His eyes saddened. It was her blood. He had spilled the blood of an innocent, 14 year old girl.

His eyes hardened. _Deidara..._

-----------

The uproar in Konoha was deafening. Neighboring villages just better be glad that Naruto wasn't there to experience the problems Konoha was, because if so, he'd be even louder then Konoha was right now, and that wasn't an exaggeration at all.

Tsunade was upset. Beyond upset. And everybody knew to stay clear of her when she was like this. Unfortunately, Shizune HAD to stay with Tsunade at all times. She was huddled in a corner, stuck in her little chibi mode as she watched Tsunade fearfully. The woman was throwing things around the room, either because she was searching for something or she was just angry.

"WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?!"

"Um... Tsunade-sama." Shizune squeaked in a small voice. "I don't think Sakura is hiding. She's not in here."

"I KNOW THAT!" Tsunade rounded on Shizune, but forced her voice to lower when she saw the look on her apprentices face. "Sakura just doesn't disappear like this."

"I-I know... But..."

Tsunade refused to listen. "We haven't seen her for over 24 hours, which means she's officially missing."

"Y-You don't think she..."

"No-" Tsunade knew Shizune was suggesting Sakura went to go find Sasuke. "-I've trained her... She wouldn't..."

Shizune sighed, walking over, Tonton clutched to her chest protectively. Sakura could handle herself, but when the second apprentice of a Hokage disappeared, it might mean they were torturing her for information. If that was so, Sakura was dead by now. She wouldn't have given up information, and the enemy wouldn't have accepted that very nicely.

But Shizune couldn't think like that. She shook her head, knowing Sakura could come out of this alive. No one knew where she was, but she was alive and she was somewhere. And Tsunade was too headstrong to let it go down like this.

Tsunade sat down at her desk. "This can't be happening."

"Tsunade-sama. Sakura-san is very capable. She'll be fine."

"I-I know." Tsunade sounded like she was holding back a quivering voice. "I worry for her anyway."

"I know, Tsunade-sama, I know."

The two stood there in silence for a while. Tsunade had already sent out ANBU to find Sakura. If Sakura was close, and alive, she would be found, and hopefully so would the enemy. They better hope Sakura is alive. They were already going to get their asses kicked for taking Sakura in the first place. But if she was dead-

"Lord Hokage!"

Tsunade looked up from her desk. "This better be about Sakura!"

"It is! We found her!" One of the high ranked, Anko, chanted. "She was in the forest, just beneath a tree right outside our village."

"What?!" Tsunade's eyes widened. "How is that possible?!"

Anko shook her head. "She's really messed up. Evidence points to poisoning and then she received an antedote apparently. She's got bruises everywhere and she's bleeding."

Tsunade was awfully confused, and really angry at the mess someone had made of Sakura. The only thing that bothered her was the fact that she was right outside Konoha. It was obvious she wasn't there before, considering ANBU have been searching for her all day. And whoever had taken her in the first place had brought her back. What kind of enemy did that?

Shaking her head, Tsunade stood up. "Get her in my office, now!"

Within minutes, her order had been obeyed and Sakura was laying on Tsunades desk. She studied her. Sakura had been previously poisoned, that much was sure. But it was mostly out of her system by now, and she was left by the bad bruises. Her gloves were gone, and she had cuts everywhere, especially on her hands, even through the gloves.

She wasn't sure what had caused all of this, but she knew it had something to do with the poison... Some of these wounds must be defensive wounds.

Tsunade placed her hands on the bruises. She placed one over her left arm, and one over Sakura's left leg, while Shizune attended to the right arm and leg. A soft glow radiated from both hands, and soon the bruises were cleared up, and in the place of the bloody cuts were just little scars that would stay there thanks to the poisons effects. Tsunade didn't understand, but ignored it for now.

Sakura's face was still a mess, so Tsunade took a napkin, wiped the dirt away from her face, along with the blood. Just a small stained rested on the bottom, right corner of the sleeping beautys face.

To finalize the treatment, Tsunade put her hand to Sakura's forehead. There was another soft glow and then Sakura's eyes began to open. A groan escaped the chapped pink lips, and finally those eyelids were completely up and green eyes were staring up at a _moving_ ceiling.

Finally her vision cleared up and she slowly turned her head in her masters direction.

"Tsunade-shishou?"

Tsunade sighed in relief. "Sakura... How do you feel?"

"Better then I did before I passed out." She muttered, almost to herself. "How did I end up here?"

"You were found in the forest. Now, Sakura. You were missing for over a day. What happened?"

Sakura's eyes widened. She knew it had only been a few hours that she was down in those dungeons. What happened when she was unconscious that made 24 hours pass by? And what happened that made her end up here.

"I was ambushed by someone during training." Sakura suddenly said. "He took me somewhere, and... And someone poisoned me."

"... So you _were_ poisoned."

Sakura nodded. "I was chained up, but the guy was going to finish me off with glass. I broke free at the last minute and broke it."

"Y-You did? Under the poison?" Tsunade seemed taken aback.

"Yeah."

The elderly woman smiled proudly.

"Good job, Sakura. As expected of my student." Tsunade soon grew serious. "You need to give details to the ANBU later, okay? For now, I want you to go home and rest."

"Thank you."

Tsunade furrowed her eyebrows when Sakura gave a thankful smile. Her smile looked as cheery as usual, but it just confused Tsunade. How could she be like that? She was acting a lot like Naruto. Smiling, no matter what. Tsunade soon smiled too.

Sakura got up and headed out the door, the smile falling immediately. She was a lot like Naruto, after being near him so much. She wanted to smile. It confused people, and then made them happy in return, and then she could go home and think miserably to herself without anyone fussing over her.

_I wonder why I ended up back home_

** . Okays, don't ask me why Pein let her go back home. I just figure maybe something like that would impress him and he decided to let her go, so that she could grow to be a worth opponent and she could fight them one day in a fair fight to see who is truly stronger. I dunno. He seems like that kind of guy. Heh, I was kind of surprised a lot of you expected Sakura to end up going after Pein. I wasn't going to godmod her abilities. She was still poisoned.**


	9. 08: Trick Or Treat

**Thanks for all the reviews I'm sorry that it took so long for me to update. Don't think I'm ditching you guys! I've just been busy.**

**For all your Halloween needs, this chapter is Halloween based!**

**Disclaimer: All rights to Naruto are Kishimoto's. This story is for fun, not profit.**

**[[ Also, I dunno if Naruto has Halloween. But many Naruto fan arts are made based on this holiday, so why not fan fictions? **

Chapter 9: It isn't so scary when you're by my side

It had been a few months since the whole incident with Akatsuki. To this day, Sakura still didn't know what happened, nor did she want to dwell on the incident and figure it out. It was a scary image and she really didn't want to live through the pain she went through that day.

It had taken a month, but Sakura gradually got over what happened and she went back to being Tsunade's apprentice the next day. She decided to work more on that self healing jutsu she had been practicing the day she met Zetsu.

Zetsu...

Sakura thought about him a lot. She was very neutral on him right now. She had thought highly of him, for some reason, the first time she met him. He was really nice and even saved her that day. But after what happened to her, she felt a vicious feeling towards him. She couldn't tell if she was angry and wanted to kill him for what he put her through. Or if she was sad that he would do it.

Or maybe she was just scared.

As Sakura walked out of the house on that darkening evening of Halloween, she found herself thinking of him. It was probably because as she walked down the road, a happy trick or treater boucned down past her, dressed up as an alien. His little sister came wobbling after him with her mothers help, with green leaves as her costume, little flowers popping around her. The flowers were obviously made out of paper, by either her or her just slightly older brother.

Anyway, these leaves reminded Sakura of the plant-like criminal. Sakura stared at the little girls retreating back, a frown on her face. It was an odd costume, but cute at the same time.

Sakura sighed and turned, heading towards Ino's house. There was to be a Halloween party and Ino demanded she come. She was dressed as a nurse. Not her most original idea, but even after the few months she was given to get over it, she was still a little shaken up from the toll the Akatsuki incident had on her, so she just grabbed one of the uniforms from the hospital. With permission of course.

Sakura stopped in front of Ino's house and raised her fist to knock on the door.

_::Rustle, rustle::_

Sakura's hand stopped and she narrowed her eyes, glancing around. Her eyes trained on the bushes nearby. After a few seconds of no sound, she decided it must just be from trick or treaters nearby, she shook her head of any suspicions and knocked on Ino's door.

It was flung opening immediately.

"Hi, Sakura!" Ino greeted with a smile. "Ooh, look at how cute you are."

Sakura giggled at Ino, who was dressed as a vampiress. "Nice costume, Ino."

"You know me..."

Sakura laughed again and swept past Ino. Ino sure was good at Halloween costumes. She had those fangs, and even had two little bite marks on her neck. Hopefully that was just make up, Sakura mused to herself as she glanced at Ino's neck. Her eyes travelled down to the skimpy black vampire outfit and raised an eyebrow up at Ino.

"When I asked him if it was a good costume, Shikamaru nearly fainted when he saw me-" Ino said with a grin. "-so I took that as a yes and went with it."

Sakura rolled her eyes and she and Ino travelled further into the party. Sakura was greeted by Hinata and Kiba, who were hanging together near the punch bowl. It seemed that Kiba was trying to get Hinata out of her quiet shell so that she could dance with him. Sakura smiled in amusement and greeted a few more people before finally settling herself at the back of the room.

"What _are _you doing?" Ino asked, a hand going to her hip.

"Um... Standing?"

Ino rolled her eyes. "You should be dancing, forehead girl!"

"Che, porker."

A mark appeared on Ino's forehead, and she stuck her tongue. "Yeah, yeah. Come on! Why are you so brooding lately? It isn't because of..." She lowered her voice. "You know who... Right?"

Sakura frowned, and didn't answer. Ino graoned, throwing her arms into the air dramatically.

"Sakura!" Ino thankfully managed to get herself to lower her voice again. "You need to get over him. I know you've been thinking of him still, but after what he did to you, you shouldn't even let him come to your mind."

"I know, Ino. Just... Just forget it, okay? I'm... I'm not even thinking about him."

Ino grew an annoyed look, staring at Sakura for a minute, unsure of what she should do. Finally she just settled with a poke to the forehead and some last parting words.

"Okay, but don't let him hurt you anymore."

Then Ino went to go join the rest of the group. Sakura watched her leave, and finally smiled a bit. Ino was just looking out for her. And Sakura didn't blame her. Sakura had been nothing but a moping mess when Sasuke left. It had taken her, like, three months before she could finally force a smile to her face. Now she was brooding again, and just keeping herself from having fun like she did back then.

_I need to learn to have fun now! Zetsu doesn't matter. I won't be seeing him again_

With that in mind, Sakura rushed after Ino, hoping to get in a dance with somebody.

**Paragraph break**

Turns out, Sakura really did have a great time. By the time she was ready to go home and was smoothing out the door, a large grin was on her face. Ino had loosened her up a bit and even convinced her to dance with most of the guys. Which included Neji [[ who needed some convincing too, considering he insisted he didn't dance , Lee [[ who was very energetic about dancing with her and stepped on her feet a lot , Kiba, Shino [[ he was pretty stiff , and even Chouji [[ it turned out to be really fun with him actually .

But now she was tired. She didn't pay much attention to her surroundings and headed in the direction of her house. She reached up, running her fingers through her cherry blossom colored hair. Whew, she had to make sure she wore more sensible shoes when she went out dancing like that.

_:: Rustle rustle ::_

Sakura halted and looked around. There couldn't possibly be anymore trick or treaters. Anyone young enough to be into trick or treating had to be in bed by now.

_Calm down, Sakura. It's just your imagination._

Sakura let out the breath she had been holding and continued to walk towards her house. Though she was more on her guard this time and was nervously looking around. She was constantly giving herself soothing words, but she couldn't help this feeling overcoming her. There was somebody following her; She was sure of it.

"Sakura..."

Sakura jumped when someone whispered her name and she looked around nervously, wondering where that voice had come from.

"Wh-Who is there?"

"Have you forgotten my voice already?"

Sakura let out a slight gasp. It did sound familiar, but not familiar enough for her not to have this alarm ringing through her head. She broke out into a run, but she could hear somebody coming after her. She closed her eyes, trying to focus chakra into her feet so she could get to Tsunade's office for protection.

But just as she was passing an alleyway, only two blocks away from her destination, a hand shot out and grabbed her arm. Before she could scream, another hand shot and covered her mouth and her muffled scream went unheard as she was dragged into the alley.

She struggled and struggled, but couldn't break free. Whoever it was seemed to know her weaknesses well, and was exploiting each of them. She couldn't move her arms to get in a good punch, and she was too frightened to consider using her feet. The heels of said body parts were dragging along the pavement as she struggled to slow down her attacker.

"Calm down." A voice hissed. "I'm not here to hurt you!"

"Mmph... Ahh!" Sakura screamed at him through his hand.

Finally she opened her mouth, her eyes narrowed angrily, and she bit down. There was a yelp of pain, and the hand that held her mouth was pulled back. Somebody cursed and caressed their hurt hand carefully.

Instead of crying for help like she wanted, she hastily grabbed her gloves, pulled them on and turned around, getting into a defensive stance. Her attacker was hidden in the shadows, just barely hiden away from the street life that caked half of the alleyway in light.

"Who the hell are you!?"

"Geez, you're still as feisty as ever." The cursing stopped and the person just chuckled.

Sakura's eyes widened as the attacker took a step. She took a step backward, prepared to launch an attack. That is, until she saw who it was.

Her mouth dropped. "Zetsu!?"


	10. 09: Apology

**A/N**

**Let me get the timeline a little straightened out. When Deidara said Sasori killed a girl, I wasn't specifying that it was Sakura, or even anybody important to the plot. Let's just say he killed some random girl who, for some reason, needed to be killed. I'm sorry if it's bothersome, but I just needed a random scene that would require Zetsu to come out into the open, which was to use his technique to "eat" the girl's body. **

**Sakura is only 14 in the story, and she's not nearly as strong or as good at medical ninjutsu as she is in the current anime. She was in the waterfall of her forest, practing her self healing ninjutsu [[ I don't care if you think I'm copying Hinata. Hinata was not only in the waterfall, practicing for something else, but it was a friggin filler, so don't bother me about it. , when Zetsu was huffing along, barely alive. He found her practicing, was transfixed with her ability, and passed out in the middle of it.**

**Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. I'm doing this for fun, not profit.**

The alley went silent after Sakura's little gasp of her attackers name. She should've realized it was him, considering the hand that grabbed her wasn't the normal color of a humans hand. And his massive form was easily detectable within the shadows and she should've known by the shadows shape that it was him.

She had been too scared and frantic at the time though.

She forced her breathing to shallow a bit, and although she probably should be afraid of him, now that she knew it was him, she felt a little safer. He had no reason to attack her right now, and he wasn't stupid enough to do so when they were in the middle of her village and with her progressing strength, she could easily punch something and get somebody's attention.

"What are you doing here?" Sakura asked coldly.

"Ouch." Zetsu smiled a bit. "Just thought I'd pay my favorite enemy a visit."

She scoffed, clenching a gloved fist. "You think this is funny?"

"Not really." The smile left his face and Zetsu gave a little shrug. "But I'm serious. I just came to see you."

"What the hell for?"

Although Zetsu didn't blame her for her cold attitude, he didn't really enjoy it or anything. He had never forgiven himself for hurting her, and it had taken him all this time to bring himself to come visit her. Not to mention, he had to wait for a non suspicious time.

"No reason. To apologize I guess. I don't know." Zetsu answered honestly.

Sakura narrowed her eyes. "If you were sorry, you wouldn't have done it in the first place."

"Well when I am given orders and can't follow through, my other side takes over."

"Che, nice excuse." Sakura wasn't buyin' it. "You really think I'll forgive you?"

"No."

Sakura frowned, a bit surprised by his answer. She figured he might just say something witty, but he seemed genuinely sad to her hear talking to him like this. And he had come down here to see her, even though there was a big chance she'd call attention and get him killed by ANBU or even tracker ninjas.

"W-Well..." Sakura was at a loss for words. "What makes you think I'm not going to alert somebody to your presence?"

"Do it."

Sakura's eyes widened and then narrowed again. "What's your problem? Why are you here?! Tell me the truth! Why are you ruining my life?!"

Zetsu bit his lip. "S-Sakura... Come on... I'm really sorry for what I did to you. My feelings for you-"

"Your what?!"

"My _feelings_ for you are strong." Zetsu wasn't going to lie. He didn't come all the way over here to make up a bunch of junk. "I'm gong to apologize whether you want it or not."

"..." Sakura was silent, then she raised an eyebrow. "Well...?"

Zetsu was taken aback for a minute, then got out slowly, "I'm... Sorry.. And I'm... Very... Proud..."

"Proud?"

The Akatsuki member looked away, as if embarrassed. "It's just... You were poisoned, and yet you overcame that long enough to save yourself. I just felt very proud at your strength."

"Well.." Sakura hesitated. "I would thank you if you weren't the one who put me in that predicament in the first place. You were cruel."

"I'm a criminal. I'm sorry that I am, but I can't just stop being one. My only home is the Akatsuki. I have to obey my leader, no matter what."

Sakura shook her head. "I just... Can't believe this. Why was I brought there?"

"I think Deidara somehow found out about you." Zetsu said, his eyes hardening. "He is the one who kidnapped you. I'm sure it wasn't a coincidence you were the one I had to torture. They were testing my loyalty."

"Oh..." Sakura's facial expression softened. "Zetsu.. I'm not sure if I should forgive you or not."

"I understand. I just had to get that out."

Sakura nodded a little, and just stared at him. The whole place lapsed into silence again. She wasn't sure how to handle this situation. He had tortured her for information, but somehow she ends up back in her village, okay for the most part. And now he was here apologizing for something he shouldn't have even done in the first place.

And these "feelings" he talked about. She doubted he understood or even knew what they meant. But she felt that she did. Sure, she didn't understand her own feelings, but she felt as if she could connect to the ones he felt.

"Zetsu-san..."

He looked up at her, and tensed when she came towards him. The feelings had for her were so strong and he couldn't handle them. But he had to. She couldn't see him in a weak state. She got closer and closer, until she wrapped her arms around him and leaned up, their lips closing in on one another.


	11. 10: The Right Kind of Wrong

**A/N: I'm SO sorry it took this long to get an update out. I've been really busy. I should have another chapter out by tomorrow night or something. It's written and what not but I figured this was too good a cliffy to just... Get out one right away. So the next chapter will be out tomorrow. I wanted to wait 'til Saturday but you guys are lucky I'm having a christmas dinner and will have to use all day to prepare and all night to have xD So I wouldn't find the time.**

**God, I'm so HAPPY because of all of my reviews! Thank you so much, especially to those who review more then once xD**

**Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. He belongs to Kishimoto. And Sasuke. And maybe to Gaara. This story was made for fun and not profit.**

**Warning: There might be a couple of bad words. Like hell and something slightly worse. Beware kiddies. And I'm fully aware it's not Halloween anymore, hehe. I'll slowly make my way out of it.**

The rain pounded harshly against the streets and gloomy trick or treaters [[ the older ones who preferred to stay out late reluctantly headed home, as not to get too wit and end up sick. The rain had appeared out of nowhere and it was kind of upsetting to the partying Konoha. They loved every holiday, including All Hallows Eve, so they loved to party any chance they got.

Too bad it was raining. That certainly put a damper on the mood.

Ino stared out the window, her elbow resting on the pane. Her long blonde hair was out of it's ponytail. Her friends had gone home ten minutes ago when they saw hints of rain, because they wanted to get home before the rain started. So although it had been a lot of hours of partying, Ino was sad that it ended already.

_'I wonder where Sakura went. She left earlier then the others'_

Ino recalled the uneasy conversation between the two and wondered if her cheering up plan had worked or not. Sakura had ended up laughing and dancing, but who knows? She was getting good at those fake smiles of hers.

Ino stood up and grabbed her blue ribbon, tieing her hair back with it. She played with the bang in front of her face until she got it just right, and then she headed into her room, a weird frown on her face.

_'I don't know what's wrong with me'_

Ino had no idea where this dangerous feeling of hers had come from. She had half a mind to just stop her actions and just stay home. Perhaps the rain was making her weary and more alert then usual for some reason. People were more vulernable in the dark rain.

Most likely, Sakura was safe at home, sitting in front of a fire with her parents. Drinking hot cocoa and counting out the candy they had left, the candy that trick or treaters hadn't gotten their little hands on.

But still...

It had been a rough night and, knowing her, she would've ran off somewhere to train, rather then bringing her dreary mood to her parents, who would question and confuse Sakura. That's the way it always was with that little twerp.

So Ino grabbed a backpack and stuffed some medical supplies and extra clothes [[ she was about to get very wet, after all, and she didn't know how this night would turn out so she would be prepared . Then next she threw in some extra ninja weapons, just in case, and stuffed some more in the kunai pouch that was hidden beneath the dress of her vampiress outfit.

On her way out she grabbed her dads tacky rain coat. She didn't really care how she looked right now. It was dark outside, and Sakura was more important then fashion at the moment, so she just grabbed it and ran outside into the room.

The ringing of bells sounded and Ino was finally trudging through gathering mud.

Too bad she didn't know she'd regret it later.

-----------

The state of bliss was almost unbearable. Two lips were moving smoothly against each other. A mouth opened up to invite a prodding tongue inside. A slight moan escaped the lips of the teenager and she leaned up a bit more.

The rain fell soundly upon the heads of young Sakura and Zetsu, but they didn't see to notice. The two just stood there in the rain, his hands on her hips, and her hands clasped together behind his head.

She finally gave into the voice screaming at her and she pulled away, taking in a deep breath once she was able to. Although she was flushed and breathing heavy, you could barely tell because of the rain. Zetsu's face was completely clear and he was staring at her strangely for some reason.

When she noticed this, she wondered briefly to herself if she had completely sucked at kissing. But then she harshly criticized herself. This was kind of weird because her inner self was yelling, 'CHA! He better have liked it!'

"Sakura-san?"

She blinked in surprise, then frowned once she realized he was about to say something about it.

"Shh..." She whispered softly.

She didn't want him to ruin the calm moment with words about the whole situation. She knew what just happened shouldn't have happened, and she really didn't want him to question it. The more he did that, the more real the situation became and Sakura couldn't let that happen just yet. Not when she already knew how wrong her actions just were.

Sakura closed her eyes and took another deep breath. She slowly let it out, then finally opened her eyes to look at him for real. Her heart was beating fast and hard, because she could hear it over the loud pounding of the rain. Which was something she could finally feel pouring down onto her head.

She was just about to reach up above her head and shield herself, but Zetsu beat her to the chase. A shadow loomed over her and she looked up in surprise. Zetsu had leaned closer to her and the large plan cascading around his head extended forward to cover her body from the rain.

"There you go, Sakura-san."

Sakura stared at him with wide eyes, which soon softened as she smiled. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

Sakura nodded slowly and looked down to her feet, a frown in her brow. "Zetsu... I... I didn't mean to do that... Something came over me and..."

"..."

"And you're my enemy," Sakura continued on when all she got was silence in reply. "This is so wrong." Zetsu opened his mouth to say something, but she continued to ramble, "I just wasn't thinking. It may be wrong, but it doesn't _feel _wrong... Because it is... But I mean really _feel_ and I-"

Her words were cut short when he leaned towards her and captured her lips for another kiss. Despite her negative words, he seemed to melt right into it, and her arms went back up around his neck to rest there.

She wondered if this was what heaven felt like.

Too bad it didn't stay that way.

**  
**

Ino was beginning to think that running out into the rain like this was really stupid. She was smarter than this. Exactly what had she been thinking, running out into the rain with nothing on but a thin rain coat over a flimsy black dress [[ stupid costome ? It just wasn't like her at all to think this irrationally about a situation such as this one. It was kind of dangerous even.

_'Sakura, you better be out here, you troublesome girl'_

Oh great. Now she was thinking like Shikamaru.

Ino lightly smacked the side of her head, trying to snap out of this daze. She hoped that Sakura was out here. Not that she wanted her friend out in the cold rain, but she really didn't want to end up going back home with no Sakura and find out tomorrow Sakura had been home. Because then she'd feel really stupid about this.

Not that she didn't already.

Ino looked around, trying to focus through the pain. The cold rain was slowly numbing any skin it had touched, and it was hard to think through the sound of the rain pounding harshly against the ground she was treading on.

Not to mention the ground was slippery and she had to concentrate on that _too_.

_'Come on Ino. You've been getting training from Tsunade-sama herself! You've been taught better then this! Get through any obstacle! Concentrate!'_

Ino stopped in the middle of the street and put her hands into a seal so she could her chakra properly. She wasn't a chakra expert but if Sakura wasn't bothering to hide her chakra [[ which she wasn't since she wasn't on a mission , then it should be easy to find her if she was out here somewhere. Preferrably nearby.

Ino gave up a few minutes later and sighed, feeling annoyed at herself. Her hands fell out of the seal and down towards her waist. God, why, this one time in her life, did she have to make such a stupid choice, only to come up with noth-

'_Wait'_

She was picking up something. Or... She thought she heard something anyway.

In oglanced towards the street that was just a block or two away from Sakura's house. She furrowed her eyebrows suspiciously at the noise and cautiously headed towards wherever it was coming from. She put her hands back into the seal it had previously been in and began to focus her chakra towards her ears. It was a stupid thing to do but hopefully it would work.

Thankfully, it did a little.

She could make out some words, but she didn't know what those words were. But, much to her delight, it was actually sounding a lot like Sakura. What worried her, however, was that there was a second voice. A male voice that she didn't recognize. This made Ino very suspicious. Or more so anyway.

_'Sakura doesn't have a boyfriend, does she? Ugh, no way! I would so know about it!'_

Ino ran towards the place Sakura's voice had been coming from. It stopped in mid sentence, which made Ino run faster since she felt that Sakura was in danger. She made sure to hide her chakra and was as quiet as she could be, since she wasn't sure of the situation and didn't know if this was a trap or something.

She got to the alley that Zetsu and Sakura were in and she eyed it oddly.

_'What the hell is Sakura doing in __**there**_

Ino peeked around the corner and squinted her eyes to get a good look at whatever was going on in there. The scene was hard to make out, but she could see one massive shadow looming over a smaller body, of which looked like Sakura, since that pink hair stood out in the dark atmosphere surrounding the rest of the place. But they were way too close to see what was going on.

Ino leaned in even closer and waited for her eyes to adgust to the dark so that she could see what was in there a little better. When they did, she finally got a glimpse of what was going on. Her eyes went wide and she drew in a sharp breath. That guy. He was-

Zetsu pulled abruptly away from Sakura, his sharp senses immediately picking up that sharp intake of breath coming from Ino. It got his attention all right and he knew there was going to be trouble. He looked to the girl peeking in on them.

_'Oh shit_

Sakura was confused and turned around to see what Zetsu was looking at.

And that's when Ino screamed.

Loudly.


	12. 11: Problems

**A/N: xD Geez. You guys should calm down. They were NOT going to have sex. Ino didn't ruin anything that bad. They did have a first kiss, you know. Ino ish important to the plot laughs She might ruin a lot of what YOU want to see, but without her, the plot with just stay mushy and boring.**

**Also, sorry for taking so long. I could never find the time to get onto my laptop, where the chapter was.**

**Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me.**

After Ino's scream, the alley went silent. Neither of the two girls moved, both frozen to their places with a bit of surprise and fear, both of them having different reasons to feel this way. Ino was scared for Sakura's life and was surprised she would be this close to Zetsu. But Sakura was afraid for Zetsu, because she didn't know what Ino would do.

Zetsu didn't have either of these reactions. He knew who this girl was because he had spied on Sakura quite a bit. This was Ino, Sakura's best friend. The only one who knew of Sakura's recent encounters with Zetsu.

_'I have to kill her'_

Sakura looked behind her when she heard movement and saw Zetsu's arm come out, unleashing a kunai that appeared out of nowhere.

"Wait, d-don't!"

After Sakura's shout, Ino had gasped and ducked back behind the wall so that the kunai missed. Not that Zetsu had really tried. He wasn't meant to be on the offensive. He was the spy of Akatsuki. There was a reason he was never sent out to actually fight them.

"Don't hurt her!" Sakura snapped, turning around to glare at Zetsu. "She's my _friend_!"

"She's not mine." Zetsu reminded her, peeking behind her to wait for Ino's reappearance.

"So?!"

Surprisingly quicker then Zetsu had thought, Ino had somehow managed to get into the alley with them without him noticing. She grabbed Sakura's wrist and pulled the surprised girl behind her in a defensive move to protect Sakura.

"S-Stay back." Ino said shakily, her own kunai in her hand.

"Ino-chan." Sakura whispered, peeking from behind Ino. "He won't hurt you."

"How the hell would you know?! He's probably here trying to get information out of you!"

Sakura's eyes widened. "What?"

Damn, that possibility definetely hadn't crossed her mind. What if Ino was right?

Zetsu frowned. _'Great. Sakura's considering it. This Ino girl is a threat'_

"Don't talk to me as if you don't know." Ino whispered harshly to Sakura. "Seriously you don't think this guy is here on _good_ intentions?"

Sakura was speechless at the accusations Ino was blurting out, and she looked to her feet sadly. She didn't know what to do. For some reason, there was no doubt in her mind that Zetsu was here just for her, and not information. But then again, thinking about to all of the past decisions in her life, not one had really been good.

1. Letting the kids intimidate her about her forehead, leading to her shying away from people

2. Breaking the bond between someone who helped her through that. Ino put aside her feelings for Sasuke in order to stay friends with Sakura, but Sakura couldn't do the same

3. Constantly bashing Naruto on the head in defense of a boy who usually didn't appreciate her existance well enough to deserve it

And there was so much more that she wanted to look back on, but before she could really put her mind to it, Ino shoved her away and jumped out of the way of another kunai.

Sakura stared at Zetsu in horror. "What are you doing?!"

"This girl is a threat." Zetsu said. Sakura could barely see him through the rain and the darkness. "I will kill her."

"No!"

"Shh." Ino hushed. "I told you he's just here for information. You shouldn't have kissed him!"

"But-!"

Ino shushed her again and suddenly slammed her fist into the wall of the alley. Although she wasn't as skilled as Sakura when it came to that kind of strength, she did know now to manipulate her chakra almost as well thanks to her medical training.

There was a loud rumble and then some of the wall crumbled. It didn't break the wall like Sakura could've done, but it had the same effect that Ino wanted.

Sakura furrowed her eyebrows, wondering what Ino was doing. Her mind reeled for a second, and then her eyes widened when she realized Ino was alerting the village to trouble by making a ruckus.

The first thing she blurted out was, "Zetsu, run!"

Ino turned to Sakura, "Don't be on his side!"

Then she tured back around and prepared to fight the S ranked criminal. But to her surprise, he had already disappeared. She gasped in surprise.

"Where did he go?"

"I'll be back for you Sakura-san." A mans voice whispered through the air, silencing the two girls. "I promise."

"Where are you?!" Ino demanded.

But then the voice disappeared and there was nothing into the air. By now they could hear hurried footsteps. Ino turned around just as Sakura lurched forward, and she hastily caught the falling girl into her arms. She had no idea why Sakura just fainted, but she was glad there would be no fuss.

Not yet anyway.

"Ino!" Shikamaru's frantic voice called. "Is that you?"

Ino groaned as she thought back to something. Shikamaru and Chouji had been the only ones not to go home when the rain hit, and they had both gone into the kitchen to make hot cocoa before she had stormed out into the rain. They had probably freaked out when they came back and she was gone, and even more so when they heard the ruckus.

"I'm here, Shikamaru!"

"Is Sakura-san there?" Neji's voice yelled.

"Yes!"

The ninja who had been alerted by Ino's noise all came back. Shikamaru, Neji, and Kakashi were there. Ino stared at them oddly, still holding Sakura's body tightly to her.

"There was a Jounin meeting, and Tsunade-sama sent us out when she heard the noise outside." Neji explained. "We saw Shikamaru running around, calling your name, so I used my Byakugan to find you."

"Oh..." Ino sighed in relief. "Thank you."

They were eyeing her too, wondering if they were going to get some kind of explanation from her anytime soon. She was managing to stall that for now. She really didn't want to get Sakura into trouble. Or she could lie and say he had attacked the two of them or something.

"I'll take her." Kakashi came to Ino and gathered Sakura into his arms. "What happened to her?"

"Um..." Ino reached up and scratched the back of her head. "She kinda fainted."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow and sighed. Shikamaru walked over to Ino and stared at her with worry.

"I'm _fine_ Shikamaru. I'm sorry for leaving like that."

He merely sighed. "You're way too troublesome."

"I know. That's why you love me." Ino winked and headed passed him.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and followed after her, a frown coming to his face as she watched her cautious moves. She seemed frightened by something. Not quite frightened, but something had her tense and nervous.

_'She doesn't freak out this easily. I wonder what happened out here'_

(Paragraph Break)

Zetsu walked into the Akatsuki hideout, his lips pursed tightly together. That little girl had ruined his plans. Well not that he had any, but if she managed to get into Sakura's head with her words, Sakura would hate him all over again and his apology would have meant nothing.

He groaned quietly to himself.

_'I'm bad enough at it as it is. That blonde better not ruin everything'_

That wasn't what he worried about most, surprisingly enough. He had kissed that little girl. How old was she? 14? What was wrong with him?

He growled quietly to himself, before taking a quick look around. Nobody was coming at him with questions or anything. He sighed, telling himself that nobody had noticed and nobody would-

"Hey!"

Oh god. Tobi.

Zetsu sighed again, this time in annoyance, and he looked to see Tobi coming at him down the hallway. Who the hell had let him in anyway? Usuaully only Zetsu let him in.

"Deidara-san let me come in here. His bombs just keep getting better!" Tobi said in a cheery voice. "But I missed you, danna! Where were you?"

"Nowhere."

Tobi was silenced for a minute, then he said, "Deidara-sempai said that you were seeing your girlfriend-" He didn't notice Zetsu's eyes harden. "-And the leader says if that's the case, then that girl is trouble and she needs to be taken care of,"

Zetsu growled. "_What?!_"

Tobi was taken aback by Zetsus tone. "T-Tobi is a good boy! I didn't say anything! Sempai told on you, not me!"

"Dammit!"

Zetsu swirled around and headed off towards Pein's office, hoping he could talk this way out of this.

Damn.

At this rate, Sakura was definetely a problem.

Unfortunately, she wasn't a problem he could live without.

**Sorry it was so short. I didn't realize I hadn't gotten farther with it then this and I can't figure out what to write without making it seem like I should've been going to the next chapter. Next one will be longer.**


	13. 12: Best Friends

**Thanks again for the support and reviews! I'm glad I decided to write this xD Who knew that crack pairings attracted so much attention? I don't know how many of you review out of those who have read this (There are a LOT more views then reviews) and I don't know how many of you are either still reading this and will continue to review, but if so, I have a kind of poll for you.**

**I've been coming up with new ideas for fanfictions, but I'm not sure which one to dive into first. There is an idea that involves my main OTPs, which are ShikaIno, NaruSaku, KibaHina, and NejiTen... With KibaHina as the main pairing (but plenty of the others to suit the pleasure of the other fans). The main theme of it will be a dance festival. Hinata is shy and thinks of asking Naruto, but everyone knows how that kind of thing turns out for her. Also, I had another crack fic idea, the pairing being ItaxIno. It starts from childhood, explaining how Ino meets Sasuke which leads to her and Itachi meeting. A crush, he murders his clan, years pass and lalalala. Then my third idea is a SasuIno story, centering around how I think a relationship would form between the two after he finally returns to Konoha. **

**I'll be using all of these ideas, but I want you guys to pick which one you'd like to read first! Just put it in a review, but make sure to tell me how you like this chapter ;)**

**Also, don't ask why Neji was there xD I wanted to have more then just Shikamaru and Kakashi there, and decided since a Jounin meeting was a good excuse, Neji would work since I know Neji became a Jounin in there somewhere.**

**Pairings: ZetsuxSakura (main) Hints of ShikaIno**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. The characters all belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

_**Story Start**_

The rain had stopped around 11:30 PM, which had just been about ten minutes ago. Anxious Konoha ninja were gathered around Sakura's bed in the hospital with weary eyes. Only one wasn't at her bed and that was Ino, who was staring quietly out into the dark, rainless sky.

Shikamaru glanced her way and frowned slightly. There was definetely something wrong with Ino. She wans't normally this tense. She was one of the toughest kunoichi he knew and it took a lot to rile her up. Especially if it was keeping her away from Sakura's bed side, a place Ino usually wouldn't hesitate to be any other time Sakura was in bed, unconscious.

"Ino." A voice whispered softly in a concerned tone.

Ino's eyes widened and she glanced behind her. Shikamaru stared at her, his hands lazily resting in his pockets, his expression worried. She sighed and stood up, draping her arms loosely over her chest.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"I'm just a bit... Worried." Shikamaru admitted quite reluctantly. "You haven't said a word and usually you can't shut your mouth."

Ino rolled her eyes and turned back to the window. "It's nothing."

"Don't lie to me. What happened out there?"

Ino's eyes grew again and she looked down as she remembered the green plant surrounding the massive form of a black and white skinned monster. He had a cloak on with the red clouds on his cloak, which she knew was an Akatsuki specific apparel. And she had known it was Zetsu because he had been kissing Sakura. Who else out of Akatsuki would be with her like that?

Sakura's actions unnerved her.

Ino finally scoffed. "Just ask _her_ later. She'll have much more to tell you then me."

Shikamaru's brows furrowed. _'Why say her in that manner? Sakura has Ino upset for some reason... and I... don't like seeing Ino like this'_

There was a grunt from behind and both Ino and Shikamaru looked to see that Sakura was stirring. The girls eyelids twitched every so lightly before eyes fluttered open. Sakura's green eyes stared blankly above her as they adgusted to the room, a bit blurry from how long she had been fainted.

She could finally see again and she dazedly looked around. Kakashi had her hand in his and was staring down at her with a curious, yet concerned look in his eye. Neji didn't look too interested, but he was there at her bedside, as was Chouji, who had joined the group when they had brought Ino and Sakura back here to Ino's house.

Sakura then glanced over to Shikamaru, who was standing a foot or two away from Ino, who was stills staring dejectly at the woken Sakura. Green eyes widened. Looking at Ino made her remember what happened not too long ago. Did Ino tell Kakashi what happened? Was Zetsu being hunted down?... And had Zetsu only been there to get information out of her?

"Sakura." Kakashi's voice interupted her thoughts. "How do you feel?"

Sakura forced herself to calm down. "I-I'm fine, sensei."

"Good. Now what happened? Why did you faint?"

Sakura stared at him for a minute, then sighed quietly to herself. Good. He seemed clueless. It meant Ino hadn't told him what happened yet. She could tell him the story and leave out a few details, such as the kiss. And add in a few lies, such as the reason why Zetsu had come.

"Um..." Sakura started softly, giving a nervous look towards Ino. "There was an Akatsuki. The one who tortured me months ago." Kakashi looked surprise, and Neji suddenly looked interested. "I think he came back for me again or something, maybe to bring me back to his lair for more information."

Ino's eyes narrowed and she gave a small, "Hmph." before turning back to the window. Shikamaru gave her an odd look, and then looked back to Sakura, who was still shooting nervous looks in Ino's directly.

"We shot insults back and forth for a while, but I didn't want to fight and draw attention because I didn't know how dangerous he was and didn't want anyone to get hurt." There was another scoff from Ino, and Sakura glared at her this time. "Ino-chan came to my rescue and thought more rationally then I did. Instead of wondering how dangerous he was, Ino-chan knew he'd flee if Konoha nins came. So she made noise and attracted him."

Everyone was silent as Sakura explained the story, especially Ino and Shikamaru. Shikamaru knew something more must've happened, something that had been bad enough to spook the hell out of Ino. He knew her well and was the only one who noticed something off about her.

And Ino was a bit miffed that Sakura had altered the story. She didn't mention that Zetsu had no intention of coming here to capture her again. Or that Zetsu and her ended up kissing beneath the rain. Or that Ino had caught them kissing and Zetsu tried to kill her.

"Did he hurt you?" Kakashi asked. She shook her head. "All right. You'll have to talk to Tsunade later and give her a description so that she can look into it."

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei."

"Come on. We have to go back to Tsunade then. Neji."

Neji nodded and then he and Kakashi walked out of the room.

The minute they had gone, the air had filled with silent tension. Ino crossed her arms and glared at Sakura. Although she probably should've waited until Shikamaru moved, she also knew he'd bug her about it later because they were too close for him not to have noticed how upset she was and now bad a liar Sakura was.

"Sakura! How could you?!"

Sakura, also not minding Shikamaru being there, defended herself. "What?! I didn't leave out anything _important_!"

"Nothing important!? You kissed him! And he even tried to kill me!"

"Well he didn't kill you, now did he?" Sakura said, feeling taken aback. She felt bad about saying that though. "And they don't need to know he was kissing me! All it would do is make their opinion of me lessen!"

"Well maybe you deserve that!"

This shut Sakura up.

Shikamaru looked between the two girls, his eyes wide. Sakura was kissing the enemy? He tried to kill Ino? He gritted his teeth. This guy tried to kill Ino and Sakura was too busy worrying about her reputation to care?

Finally Sakura spoke again, "That was harsh Ino!"

"I dont' think so." Shikamaru said quietly. "I'm not going to judge you by who you kiss, but he's dangerous. Even so, you kissed him. And that's your fault. Ino was almost killed, and you're going to put your reputation above Ino. Since he didn't do anything PARTICULARLY wrong besides trespassing, they won't put too much effort into hunting him down. If they knew what he did to Ino, they'd look harder."

Sakura was taken aback by Shikamaru's sudden speech, but it didn't completely shock her. Shikamaru was probably pissed at this guy for trying to hurt Ino. They were close. Sakura sighed. He was right anyway.

"I guess I could go tell them that detail... It's not like I have to tell them about the kiss anyway."

"Che, the kiss has nothing to do with it. You just don't want him to get hurt." Ino spat out. "He's using you, Sakura!"

"He probably is! But I dont' care!"

Ino's eyes widened at Sakura's raised voice. She sighed and looked down to the ground. She didn't like Sakura's answer at all. There was a big possibility that Zetsu didn't care for Sakura and only wanted information out of her, yet Sakura was beginning to fall for him so quickly that she didn't even care if those were Zetsu's only intentions. Not to mention, it was most likely Sakura didn't believe that little theory one bit.

_' I know Zetsu cares for me. I can see it in his eyes. Nobody can fake it that good_

"Sakura." Shikamaru's stern voice finally spoke again. "This cant keep happening. He is _not_ allowed in the village."

Sakura sighed again. "I know that but..."

"Whether he cares about you or not, doesn't matter. Maybe he does. But it's just _you_ he cares about. He wasn't hesitating in attempting to kill Ino. Innocent villagers could get hurt, you know."

Sakura bit her lip. She knew this was true. She didn't think Zetsu would harm her again (of course she didn't think he would before he did at his hideout either, so she could never be too sure), but she knew that he wouldn't hesitate to harm someone else if they got in the way. He had seemed dead set in killing Ino when Ino had caught them kissing earlier.

Sakura stood up from her seat and she was fully aware of the other two watching her warily. She headed towards where Ino was and set her hands softly on the window pane. She stared out into the dark sky, her eyes sad, and her body relaxed in her position.

_'It's dangerous to be around Zetsu unless I'm sure villagers won't be around'_

She wondered if there was any way to meet up with him outside the village. She didn't know if she could ever find a time when someone wasn't watching her now that they knew about Zetsu. She wouldn't be able to sneak out, unless she could convince Ino she could be safe. She knew Ino would be the one watching her most and would be the main reason for her lack of privacy.

"Shikamaru." Sakura said softly. "Can I talk to Ino, alone?"

Shikamaru was unsure, but when he got a nod from Ino, he said, "All right. Don't fight, you two."

He threw a concerned glance at Ino for the last time, then headed out of the room.

Ino took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. She wasn't sure if she wanted to talk to Sakura alone, but she had to be tough for Sakura. Even though she didn't approve of this (hell no, she didn't), she wasn't going to start shouting or anything. She had to be reasonable with Sakura, whose heart was fragile ever since Sasuke left her on that bench a year ago.

"Ino." Sakura turned to her. "I want to talk to you about Zetsu."

A short pause.

"Fine. What is it?"

Sakura sighed in relief. "It's about his intentions. I think you're wrong about him."

"Do you?"

"Yes.I can see the emotions clearly on Zetsu's face. There's no way he could fake this. I think he really cares about me."

Ino scoffed. "Why would he? He's a criminal Sakura and he's already tortured you for information unsuccessfully. What if this time he's trying a different approach?"

"But I know he isn't! I just know! There's no way he is faking what he's said to me."

Ino took in another breath, trying to control her emotions. Like she always did. She had to. She didn't like to be too emotional around Sakura (or anyone for that matter) because she didn't want the whole room to be tense like earlier. Not only that but emotions like the ones she had inside of her just hurt. No need to spread that all around to everyone else.

"Sakura... I don't know what you're thinking." Ino shook her head. "But I want you to be careful. I don't trust him, but I do trust you. And... I... I won't report anything. I'm your best friend and I'd support anything you wanted to do."

Sakura slowly smiled. "Thank you Ino."

"Yeah, yeah. And I'll come to the wedding, but I'm not being a bridesmaid for that weirdo."

"Ino!"

A few minutes later, from outside and down the hall, Shikamaru heard laughter coming from the room. He smiled a little and headed into the living room to rest on the couch or something while those two talked.\

**End of this chapter. I know I promised longer chapters, but that just won't happen. These things take forever to make because this story doesnt have a real plot, you know. **


	14. 13: Memories

**Thanks for the reviews again [[ 100 xD I was happy to get at least one vote for my next story, which was favoring the ItaIno, but I'll wait for more 'cause they're all still in progress. If you wish to know what I"m talking about, just check the authors note of my last chapter.  
**

**This chapter is kind of dark-ish. I need to start putting warnings now. Not all of the warnings will happen in this chapter, of course.**

**Also, I'm in an Ino mood so she is in a lot of my future chapters, and this one as well.**

**Warnings: Character death, tape, self-abuse, pedophilia (I should have put this last one first since it's obvious Zetsu is much older then Sakura)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and I'm not profiting from this.**

..Chapter Start..

The rain had done lots of good over the next two months that passed since the Halloween incident. It finally came to a complete stop and people could go out again without bringing an umbrella.

It was worth it.

There were even more flowers then before, everything, full in bloom, some still just a bud.

There were roses, and daisies, and daffodils... There were even a few of the rare flowers, such as poppies and some black and yellow roses. It was a beautiful site and Konoha hadn't looked this beautiful in years.

Sakura was definitely enjoying it.

Ever since she was a little kid, she had always loved flowers.

Ever since the one flower arranging class she shared with Ino.

_**"Hey Ino-chan, wait for me!"**_

_**A 7 year old Ino turned around, watching her small, pink haired friend run towards her with a smile. But her feet must've caught on something, because the next thing she knew, she was face down on the ground with all of the kids staring at her.**_

_**Ino, arms crossed, scoffed. "Wow. You're clumsy."**_

_**Sakura looked up and smiled in embarrassment.**_

Sakura laughed softly at the memory and stood up from her bed. She had been excused from the hospital a week after she had landed in it, and things had gone pretty smoothly since then. She was asked lots of questions, but had pretended to have suffered from the slight head injury the nurse said she had. She said she couldn't remember anything.

Ino knew something, they thought, but she pretended as though she had gotten there AFTER Sakura had fainted, therefore she didn't know anything.

_'Ino always has been a good friend'_

_**Sakura leaned down and picked a thoroughwart. "Hey Ino-chan, do you know anything about this stuff? I'm no good at it at all."**_

_**Ino glanced at her in surprise and scoffed for a second time. "You're named after a cherry blossom and yet you don't know anything about flowers?" She sighed. "Well don't worry, it's really easy once you know all the tricks."**_

_**Sakura nodded and listened intently to her new friend. "The first thin you have to do is find a main flower for your bouquet. Then you find other flowers to compliment the main ones. You see, flowers have the highlight eachothers beauty."**_

_**Sakura nodded again, and Ino looked around. "For example... Ah!" She pointed over towards some pretty pink flowers. "You see those cosmos flowers over there?" Sakura looked over at them with wide eyes. "Well if those were the main flowers in your arrangement, then the thoroughwarts you picked would compliment them."**_

_**Sakura blinked. "Oh!"**_

_**"Cosmos flowers are also called Autumns Cherry Blossoms and they're the prettiest flowers in the fall. Their name come from an old word that means harmony." Ino glanced at Sakura, pointing a finger up. "They can harmonize with all the other flowers and any autumn grass would go along perfectly with them in a flower arrangement."**_

_**Sakura stared at Ino in amazement, feeling shocked at this new realization. She pried her eyes away from the flower expert, blushing a little. She sighed, looking down at the grass. The way Ino described those flowers reminded her of something.**_

_**Ino reached down and took one of Sakura's thoroughwarts, placing them up by her hair. She slid it behind her ear and asked, "So do I look as good as the cosmos flower." She winked. "Come on, am I cute?"**_

_**Sakura's eyes widened in surprise at Ino's question. She gazed at Ino, deciding that she was definitely beautiful like the cosmos. She went perfectly with the flower. She looked down. "Erm, yeah..."**_

_**Ino put her hand down on the grass. "Sure took you long enough to say it."**_

_**Sakura wrapped her arms around her knees and laughed in embarrassment. The two were interrupted by a snobbish laugh. Sakura looked up to see Ami and her two cronies staring down at them.**_

_**"Well well, you sure look like you're having a lot of fun." Ami crossed her arms. "Billboard brow. Ha!"**_

_**Sakura looked away sadly, while Ino glared at the girl, who paid no attention to her. Ami came around to Sakura's side and put her hands on her hips.**_

_**"You know, you're still nothing but a hopeless little girl, Sakura." Ami reached out towards Sakura's forehead. "So don't go struttin' around like you're hot stuff." She flicked Sakura's forehead, and the poor girl cried out in surprise.**_

_**Before the taunting could go further, flowers shot out towards Ami's open mouth and in surprise, she chomped down on them. From the force of the throw, Ami fell back onto her back. Her two cronies cried out in surprise and leaned down towards her.**_

_**"Sorry-" Ino's extended arm came back down to the ground. "Your head is just so empty, I thought I oughtta put flowers in there."**_

_**Ami flew up angrily. "Ino!"**_

_**Ino held up a copy of the flower in Ami's mouth. "It's aconite, a shinobi flower. I guess it's not THAT poisonous, but you might want to spit it out."**_

_**Sakura gasped, turning to Ino in surprise. The three girls screamed, and ran off to their sensei. Sakura turned back around, staring at Ami. Wow, those girls could scream. When Ino began to giggle, Sakura turned back to her, wondering what was up with that.**_

_**"I forgot to say only the root is poisonous!"**_

_**Ino began to giggle again, and Sakura couldn't help the big smile that spread across her face. 'Ino is so great. She knows practically everything. Her clothes are so stylish and she's way cute. She's even good with her shuriken' Sakura looked down at her flower. 'Her ninjutsu is great too. Compared to her I'm... Nothing...'**_

Sakura smiled fondly at the memory

Sakura smiled sadly in a reflection of the sad face her former self pulled that day. She didn't think that way anymore. She had gotten her bud to bloom, and Ino told her that she had bloomed into a beautiful flower, so she had to believe it. Ino was the expert after all.

"Oh, Sakura!"

Speak of the devil.

Sakura smiled and ran out of her room, heading towards the door that lead into her house. She was glad Ino was here. Ever since the Halloween incident, her parents had been keeping a close eye on her. They had just BARELY let her out of their sights when she had been kidnapped. Now that she had fainted for NO reason, they were keep an annoyingly close eye on her.

But, after pleading with the Hokage, her master had been kind enough to give her dad a mission on the same day her mother was going out shopping with Ino's mom.

"Hey Ino." Sakura greeted brightly as she opened the door.

"Hey Sakura! Oi, I picked up your mail for you!"

"Thanks!"

Sakura took the mail from Ino's hands and the two of them walked into the living room to sit on the couch. Sakura began to lazily shift through the mail, seeing if any of them were for her or something. Maybe Naruto decided to write or something! She hadn't seen him in nearly two years, and he already missed her 15th birthday party. He should be coming back soon.

Sakura found a suspicious later, one addressed to Haruno Sakura and her mother. Why not her dad? Why wouldn't the letter be addressed to all three of them if it was from the Hokage? And why didn't Tsunade wait until Sakura came to work and just tell her what it was? Her dad and mom should be back by then.

But Sakura was interrupted before she could peek inside.

"Hey, you won't even believe what I heard!"

"Huh?" Curiously, Sakura peeked up at Ino. "What did you hear?"

"Naruto is making his way back here! They said he should be back in by tomorrow or the day after!"

"Oh my god, really?!" Sakura's eyes widened in excitement. "I haven't seen him in nearly two years!"

"Heh, I know. I wonder if he's gotten cuter!"

"Ino!"

Ino laughed as the slightest trace of a blush crossed Sakura's face. "Oh come on, you know you're interested."

"N-No, and you know why!"

"Oh forget that Akatsuki loser." Ino pulled a disgusted face, earning a disapproving frown from her best friend. "Naruto's much cuter, and nicer... Oh yeah, and he's not an S ranked criminal!"

Sakura sighed, pouting her lips. She shook her head, another laugh escaping her lips as she looked back down towards the mysterious letter in her hands.

"Hey, what's that?" Ino asked.

"A letter from shishou. I guess it's for the whole family, but she forgot my dad. Not to mention, she probably could've just told me whatever it is in person."

Ino shrugged. "Well there must be some reason. Open it up."

Sakura shrugged and began to tear open the envelope. Ino got a thoughtful look on her face and she giggled when she remembered what happened earlier.

"You won't even believe what Shikamaru did!" She exclaimed as Sakura pulled a piece of paper from the envelope. "We were shopping, right?" She saw Sakura look up with a raised eyebrow. "I mae him of course." Ino grinned. Sakura rolled her eyes and looked back down to the letter. "And I picked out this _gorgeous_ outfit. Well you know, I just recently had an outfit change after I made Chuunin, but I had to try it on!"

Sakura's eyes slowly widene as she read over the letter, but Ino remained oblivious and kept talking.

"And it showed a LITTLE bit of cleavage 'cause it was labeled with the wrong price so it was a little small. He totally fainted! Can you believe he_fainted_?!"

"I-Ino!"

Ino stopped in her tracks and eyed Sakura oddly. A worried frown spread across her face. "What is it, Sakura? What's wrong?"

"M-My dad..." Sakura whispered with fear. Her eyes were wide. "It says here he was killed on his mission."

**We've not seen or heard Sakura's dad before. If I want to kill him, I can xD If he shows up later in the manga for some reason, then too bad. Most likely this story will be over anyway. Also, Itachi is annoying me in the most current chapter, so I won't be going by the manga and will just go by my own storyline.**


	15. 14: Kidnapped

**A/N: I'm SO sorry. I don't know if any of my old readers will read this, but if they do, I'm terribly sorry. It's been almost a year since I last updated. Life has been horrible, but it's back on track. Hopefully I can get a lot more chapters out, even sooner then a day.**

**Warnings: PG-13 language, rape implications, pedophilia, character death, and self-abuse**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does. This is for fun, not profit.**

**Chapter 14: Kidnapping**

Sakura was miserable.

No matter how many people comforted her, no matter how long she and her mother would stay curled up in the same bed and cried all night together, she wasn't feel even the slightest bit better. Her father had been killed in line of duty, although she didn't know the details because Tsunade wouldn't give them to her. What was worse is that it had been three days since that incident, and Naruto hadn't returned. She missed him a lot more then usual, because she knew he'd be able to comfort her the best.

Sakura sat on the couch, her knees drawn to her chest, and her arms wrapped around her legs. She sighed, green eyes staring sadly at the ground. She could hear Ino's knocking on the door, but per usual, didn't get up to let her in. Ino had been wanting to spend lots of time with Sakura, because she was her best friend and could probably help even more then Naruto could, but Sakura didn't like crying in front of Ino.

_Father... How could you leave me?_

Sakura tightened her grip on her legs, and sniffled. She had done a lot of crying the first two days after receiving that awful letter. First she had cried in Ino's arms. Then she had cried in Tsunade's, then she had grown furious and destroyed most of the Hokage's office, very upset that Tsunade hadn't told her in person the news. Then she had gone home and cried with her mother, who had just read the letter. Now she was all cried out and couldn't do anything but mope.

_Zetsu. Where are you?_

Sakura knew he wouldn't come, even if he knew about what happened. She'd have to go to him. But she couldn't think of him right now, could she? She wanted to be in his arms and let him comfort her, but she couldn't leave right now, not when her mother needed her.

"S-Sakura, honey." Came her mothers timid voice as a tall, pink haired woman walked into the living room. "I'm almost done with the arranging of the funeral. I was wondering if you'd like to make a speech with me. I don't think I could do it myself."

Sakura gritted her teeth; not out of anger, but out of sorrow. She hated being reminded that her father was dead. Every single time someone came to pat her back and say they were sorry. Everytime someone came and asked what time the funeral was. She was reminded every few minutes that her father had been killed on a mission and that he wasn't ever coming back.

"Yes mom."

"Thank you." Sakura's mom, Sakurako, gave a greatful smile and left the room.

Sakura sighed and stood up. She hadn't trained for the past three days. She kept sitting here in the living room, expecting her dad to come home after his mission and tell her it was all just a big misunderstanding. But she knew it wasn't so. She had been to the morgue to identify the body since her mother was too devastated, and had seen it for herself. Her father was dead, and he was going to stay that way.

"Sakura, open the door!" Ino seemed to have come back. "Naruto's in the village!"

For the first time in three days, Sakura didn't hesitate to jump up and open the door. "N-naruto?"

Ino frowned in concern, instead of answering. Sakura looked terrible. Her make up was smeared because of her tears, and her clothes were a mess, and she just didn't look happy at all. Not that Ino expected her to look happy, but she... Just looked like hell. Ino would be upset if her father died too though, so she wore a frown as she reached out and hugged Sakura.

"Yes, he's here. I saw him and had a word with him. He knows about your dad. I left him in the park. He's waiting."

"Thank you, Ino."

Sakura wiped her face and with Ino's help, she fixed her make up and outfit. Then, after slipping her boots on, she ran her fingers through her hair to fix that up a little, and then headed off to the park. She didn't know what to expect when she got there. All she wanted to do was throw herself into Naruto's arms and let him fix her, but then again, she hadn't seen him in three years.

She knew right away Ino hadn't been lieing to her when she saw the bright orange person sitting on the bench. The orange had toned down considerably since the last time Sakura saw him, but there was no doubt that it was Naruto.

Sakura stared for a moment. He was so grown up. She couldn't tell how tall he was because he was sitting, but his hair had more spikes, his eyes were even bluer then usual, and he even had a bit of maturity shining in them. He didn't look nearly as childish as she remembered. Then again, neither did she.

"Naruto! When did you get back?" She called out softly.

Naruto's eyes widened and he looked to the side. He had his mouth half open, as if he was about to answer, but he stopped short when he saw her. She felt her cheeks warm up, the first sign of a positive emotion since her father had died, when she saw his admiring gaze. He obviously thought she was as beautiful as ever.

"About twenty minutes ago." He answered in a surprisingly calm voice.

He walked over to her and she smiled weakly at him. He grinned, although he knew the occassion was sad. He then lost it and looked down, unsure of how to approach Sakura. He had wanted to come back and have a nice, happy reunion with her, but after talking with Ino, he knew it was impossible.

"You look good, Sakura-chan."

Naruto wan't sure what he had said wrong, but suddenly Sakura was bursting into a whole new set of tears. The next thing he knew, her arms had been thrown around him and she was sobbing relentlessly into his shoulder.

--

Zetsu watched this interaction with a frown on his face. He didn't like this. The guy with the Kyuubi inside of him was holding _his_ Sakura in his arms. He wasn't accustomed to this kind of possessiveness or jealousy, so he had a hard time dealing with it and holding himself back from showing himself and tearing the Kyuubi container limb from limb. He was sure fox would taste great.

_I saw that Ino girl again. She was the one that told Naruto about Sakura, and Sakura about Naruto. And she knows about me_

The conclusion that Zetsu kept getting to was that he needed to get rid of this Ino girl. He didn't fear that Sakura would tell anyone, not that he could do much about it anyway because he knew for sure he would never be able to hurt her again. However, Ino didn't like him even the slightest bit and disapproved of him immensely, this much he knew., So he would have to get rid of her.

He disappeared from his spot and reappeared in front of the Akatsuki hiding place. He did the necessary seals to open up the door without setting off the traps and made his way inside. He would have to do this so that no one else would know about him and Sakura. And he had to do it so that Sakura didn't know he was the one that hurt Ino. He had the perfect plan.

"Deidara." He spoke coldly as he peered into Deidara's room.

There was an annoyed grunt and Deidara got up and gave Zetsu a glare. "What do you want, un?"

"I need you to take care of a problem."

There was a grin. "Ooh, finally got tired of Sakura?"

"No." Zetsu gritted his teeth. "I need you to get rid of her best friend. She caught us."

"... So? If I killed her, that'd bring more attention to us, yeah."

Zetsu sighed and said, "You remember that scroll you found that erases certain memories?"

"Che yeah, but I'm not using it for your sake, un. What's in it for me?"

Zetsu frowned and thought about it. He didn't want to kill Ino because she was far too precious to Sakura. Sakura already lost her father, and it would traumatize her if she lost Ino, Zetsu knew that much. He wanted her to forget about him... That scroll was perfect, but Deidara needed something.

"I know you like to torture your prisoners. What if I said I'd let you do anything you wanted to her as long as she was alive at the end of it?"

"Hmph..."

Zetsu reached into his pocket and took out a picture of Sakura and Ino, which he had Tobi secretly take while Sakura and Ino were on a mission together. You could see Ino the most, because she was in front of Sakura. He handed the picture to Deidara, knowing the result.

As he thought, Deidara definetely looked interest. The blonde licked his lips, and the eye without the scope began to scan Ino with a lustful look. He finally handed the picture back to Zetsu and grinned.

"I think I'll do it. I haven't had a good lay in a while. Yeah."

Zetsu sighed and hoped to God Sakura didn't figure out he was behind this. She'd hate him for sure.

--

Ino felt a little better as she walked along the road towards Shikamaru's house. She knew for sure that Naruto would be able to provide the comfort Sakura hadn't been letting anyone else provide. She had been terribly worried for her friend. It was perfectly normal for someone to be so upset over a parents passing, for Ino would be the same way, but it didn't lessen Ino's concern.

_Sakura will be happy again soon. Her father died protecting his village_

She knew Sakura would've preferred her dad didn't die at all, but it was the risk for shinobi. Ino sighed, glad that his dad had to stay home a lot to help mom a little with the shop. That put him at less a risk to go out on a mission and die. She wouldn't be able to handle that.

Finally, for the first time since Sakura received the news that her dad died, Ino returned to the subject that had been bothering her since before then. Zetsu. That Akatsuki member that Sakura had a rather big crush on. She didn't know how it happened, but it did. Ino knew it wasn't good for Sakura to like an S ranked criminal. Zetsu was a villain and his job was to hurt people.

_Fuck, how could Sakura like such a guy? How does that kind of thing even happen? She hates the Akatsuki._

Ino had no answers for her questions though. She didn't know how Sakura and Zetsu met. She didn't know why Sakura would form a crush on the guy, even after he had kidnapped and tortured her. She didn't know why Sakura would risk the lives of the villagers just so she could get a kiss out of him.

Ino sighed. She knew it was worthless to dwell on it. She'd never betray Sakura's friendship. She was a little worried about herself though. She hadn't told a soul about anyone, because of Sakura, but Zetsu didn't trust her. That's why she was heading to Shikamaru. The lazy ninja had agreed not to tell anyone about Sakura's forbidden relationship either, but reminded Ino that she was in danger because of it. He didn't like her being alone.

"Hey kid. Come here, un." A voice whispered.

When Ino paused in surprise, Deidara peeked his head out of the alley. This was a very stupid way to approach someone you wanted to kidnap, but he wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the tool box. Then again, he figured she'd come over to investigate, and then he could knock her out quietly. She was barely even a Chuunin, so she would not stand a chance.

"Who are you?" Ino asked curiously as she walked towards him.

_Hook. Line. Sinker. God, she's gorgeous._

Deidara got more and more excited as she approached. "I'm Deidara, un. I need your help. I'm injured."

"Oh." Ino's face turned into a concerned face. "Hold on."

She felt a bad feeling in her stomach, but as a trained medical ninja, it was in her instincts to help anyone who was injured. She walked into the dark alley and lit her hand up with a green glow, which was her healing chakra. She was about to ask where it hurt, but she suddenly saw a large white bird in front of her. Her expression changed to one of shock.

"Stupid Konoha nins. You're too trusting, yeah."

Years and years of ninja training obviously couldn't protect her against a vicious S-ranked criminal of the Akatsuki, because before she could react, she felt a major pain from behind her. She opened her mouth to scream, but a hand slapped over her mouth to muffle it.

Then everything went black, and the last thing she heard was Deidara's dark chuckling.

**I promise you that the next chapter will be out tomorrow at the latest. I even plan on getting it out tonight, but who knows. I'm on vacation for the first time in two years, so this is the perfect time for fanfiction.**


	16. 15: Where are you, Ino?

**Ergh, I had two chapters written and my little sister deleted them! And I have no idea how she did it, because she's six. I let her on my computer and now there are no signs of them. For all I know I just didn't save right or something and she had nothing to do with it, but whatever. I wrote this in a hurry since I had promised you I'd have it out over a week ago. I'm going to start replying to reviews so I'm going to reply to the couple I got after posting the last chap.**

**Rain Yimiko Natsuya- Thanks for the CC I sent you a PM in reply and I dunno if you got it, 'cause I had a few questions about the things you said. I'm glad you like it anyway, despite the mistakes. I don't have a beta or anything. And even if I don't get one, I shall check back through chapters one day and fix them but I'm really busy.**

**And-You-Thought-I-Cared- I know xD Poor Ino. I hate to have to do that to her, but it's important to the story, so it has to be done. And yesh, Zetsu doesn't know how to express his feelings. Letting your teammate rape your girlfriends best friend isn't gonna help much.**

**Kitty: Thank you so much for taking the time to review! I'm glad I realized I had neglected this story. It's been so freakin' long, I can't even believe it ..' Thanks for sticking by me.**

**Also, bold means (besides authors notes) flashbacks, bold italics illustrate noises without a description, italics are thoughts (unless it's being used to just emphasize a word)**

**Warnings: Rape implications, pedophilia, language, character death, self abuse**

**Pairings: one sided ShikaIno, DeiIno, ZetsuSaku, one sided NaruSaku**

**Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. Obviously. Duh.**

**Chapter 15: Worry**

"She's _what_?!" Cried two voices in unison.

_**CRASH**_

Udon cowered pathetically, his hand reaching up so he could wipe at his nose with the handkerchief Ebisu had given him for his birthday a few months ago. He just knew this was going to be a bad idea, but it's not like he could've just stood back saying nothing while everyone was in panic looking for Yamanaka Ino.

He had calmly explained to them about seeing Ino walk into an alley to assist an injured, unidentified ninja. However, he had not thought to linger much on it, not thinking anything was going on, and had calmly walked on his way without staying to look for details. Of course, this didn't make Sakura or Shikamaru very happy, and they were currently both in front of the Hokage's desk with non too pleased looks on their faces.

Shikamaru was standing there with his hands on his pockets, looking more worried then anything, but keeping his cool per usual. Sakura had gone red in the face, however, and her hand was still outstretched after having thrown that chair right at Udon. Shizune had, thankfully, moved him out of the way so that it went crashing through the door and struck a passing Chuunin instead.

Udon couldn't say he was too upset about that, and instead just took out his inhalor and began to greedily suck in air.

"Please don't harm our witness, Sakura-san." Shizune said hastily as she soothingly ran her fingers through the stringy brown hair of the snot-nosed kid. "He didn't harm Ino."

"Well somebody did! Tell me again, what did you see?" Sakura demanded, emerald eyes shining with anger.

Udon shivered. "I... Well... This guy told her he was injured and she went to go see if she could help, but I walked away, not knowing it was a problem."

"What did he look like?" Tsunade finally spoke up after having gone silent for a few minutes.

"Um..." Udon struggled to think, which wasn't easy to do when someone was trying to glare a hole through your head. "He had blonde hair and long bangs covering his left eye, and had the symbol of an Iwa-nin on his forehead protector.."

"That it?"

"I thought I saw a large bird behind him, but I thought it was a trick of my eyes. Yeah, it was kind of dark, so that's all I caught."

Tsunade sighed. "All right. Thank you for sharing that information. It'll be easier to locate the missing kunoichi. You're dismissed."

"H-Hai..."

Sakura let out a groan of despair as their only witness, a snot nosed little boy who hadn't enough common sense to supply them with good information, left the room. How could this be happening right now, or at all in any case? How could someone sneak into the village and just lure Ino into an alley?

Shikamaru watched her with a frown, his composure pretty well kept, though he was being destroyed piece by piece on the inside. Ino was gone, and it was his fault. No, it was _her_ fault. Shikamaru shook his head. It wasn't anyones fault. Ino is a shinobi and these things happen.

Bu he knew that Zetsu had something to do with this. Ino was the only one who knew his secret (besides Shika, but Zetsu didn't know that) and he obviously didn't give a damn about her well being. He had told his theory to Sakura in private after they had originally heard from Inoichi that his daughter had been missing for more then 24 hours.

When he had been done unleashing his actions, there wasn't a very good response. Of course, Sakura had smacked him (that hurt too), and told him to watch his mouth because Zetsu wouldn't do something like that. That's what she thought anyway.

But Shikamaru knew the truth.

And Zetsu was going to die if he ever got his hands on him.

"We'll send a search team out for her." Tsunade told Sakura directly. Sakura opened her mouth to speak. "And no you may not go. Your emotional attachment to the victim is the largest of anyone here, besides her dad maybe. Shikamaru's too, but he's more skilled with his emotions."

Sakura's protest died in her throat and she sighed miserably. She knew Tsunade was right. If she went on this retrieval mission and let her emotions get the best of her, which she tended to do, she would do something too rash and then it would ruin the whole thing. And Ino's chances of being rescued.

Things weren't going well. Sakura's father was dead, and now Ino was missing. Not to mention Shikamaru was being obnoxious as hell, suggesting her boyfriend was behind this. Not that she had seen him since their kiss, but...

"Does that mean I'm going?" Shikamaru asked suddenly.

"Yeah. I've called in a few people." Tsunade confirmed with a nod. "All of my Jounin senseis are busy, except Kakashi, who is in the hospital. So I've asked Neji to come by and be the squad leader."

"Typical four man group then? I'm number one besides the Jounin. Who are our other two teammates?"

Tsunade smiled humourlessly. "Sai and Uzumaki Naruto."

Shikamaru and Sakura both looked surprised when she said this. Sai wasn't so surprising, because he was powerful and could do this kind of mission flawlessly. But what the hell was Naruto doing on their team? Granted, he was powerful too, probably much more powerful then any of the ones in this room, but...

"Wait!" Sakura protested. "He may not be as attached to Ino as I am, but he doesn't love her any less then he loves me or the rest of our group of friends! And he wears his emotions on his sleeves."

Tsunade sighed. She knew this would be difficult. "Yeah, he does have a bit of a temper as well, but your kind of emotional attachment is the kind that'll get you into trouble because you let it get to your head. Naruto, however, is most powerful when a friend is in danger."

Sakura's shoulders slumped in defeat, and she went over and sat in the chair. She couldn't help but think of Shikamaru's accusation. Hadn't a blonde on a bird attacked her during training? She squinted and tried to remembr, but she had pushed those memories to the far back of her mind so it was hard to tell. He had been a rock nin, hadn't he? She gritted her teeth.

"I think that the guy that kidnapped me took Ino." Sakura spoke up.

Shikamaru looked surprised, as did Tsunade. "Why?"

"Someone that fits Udons description of the attacker was the one that took me. He had blonde hair going over his left eye, and was on a giant white bird."

Sakura looked down as she spoke, shame in her eyes. If Deidara was behind this, did that mean Zetsu was apart of it? No. No way. He wouldn't do anything to Ino, knowing how precious she was to Sakura. This had to be a Deidara thing.

But if that was the case... What was the motive? The only person with a motive was Zetsu. Ino was apart of a famous clan, sure, but she wasn't Sasuke-like famous or anything, so what could Akatsuki want with her?

Sakura suddenly looked up with determination in her eyes. "I think I know what's going on."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes. "What?"

Shikamaru watched Sakura with mild shock lingering in his eyes. He didn't know what she was doing. There was no doubt in his mind that Zetsu had ordered the hit on Ino, because he couldn't think of any other solutions, and his mind was the most developed in this village. It was the only answer. But he hadn't thought Sakura would say anything.

Though, he realized with a start, Ino was a lot more important then Zetsu, especially if he had been the one to get her kidnapped. Sakura had already risked Ino's life by keeping this a secret, there was no way she could do it anymore then she already was.

"I met Zetsu about four or five months ago." Sakura began. "He was injured and since he hadn't done anything wrong, I healed him."

Tsunade nodded, interest in her eyes. She didn't know who Zetsu was, but she figured she'd get an explanation.

"He's an Akatsuki member," Tsunade's eyes widened. "I didn't see him again until I was kidnapped. He was sent in to torture me, but after I passed out, he brought me into that forest where you found me."

Sakura took a deep breath before continuing. "After a while of recovering, I saw him on Halloween night. He kissed me." There was an intake of air from Tsunade. "And I fell in love with him at this point."

"You let an S ranked criminal into the village and fell in-?!"

Sakura said, "Please, Tsunade-shishou, let me continue." She was met with silence. "Ino came and saw us, and he attacked her. Then he disappeared when Ino alerted the attention of others. She promised to keep the secret safe, but I think..."

Tsunade finished for her, "... He didn't trust her and got his friend to kidnap her."

Sakura smiled bitterly. "He must think I'm stupid. What makes him think I wouldn't figure that out?"

"I don't think he counted on a witness." Shikamaru told her.

Tsunade interupted their conversation. "But that aside, he might also be right. You _are_ incredibly stupid, forming a romance with an S ranked criminal."

Sakura looked down, ashamed.

"And instead of reporting what happened after Ino was attacked by your so called boyfriend, you kept him to yourself to protect him and not her. Now she's gone."

"I... I know. I'm sorry."

"Pointing fingers won't help anything." Shikamaru said calmly. "Our priority is to protect Ino."

"And we will, I swear it!"

Everyone blinked in surprise and turned to the doorway. Shikamaru smiled in amusement at Naruto, who was in the doorway with that 'I can do anything' grin on his face, with Sai lingering behind him. Neji was behind Sai, a disapproving look on his face at Naruto's outburst.

"Nobody will get away with kidnapping my friend!" Naruto continued. "We'll get her back, Sakura."

Sakura smiled in relief, not only glad that he said that, but glad he hadn't heard the story she just told. "Thank you."

Naruto's grin quieted down to a smile and he gave a nod. He didn't know if he could do this, despite his confident words. It was his ninja way to never go back on his words, and he would never just let a friend be kidnapped and stand back and do nothing.

_But I promised Sakura I'd bring back Sasuke and failed._

He thought of all of the things he had accomplished and slowly got more and more confident. Nobody was perfect and that old promise was still just as valid as this new one. He'd bring Sasuke back eventually. Ino was the top priority right now and he had to focus on bringing her back.

"What is the plan?" Neji asked.

Tsunade nodded. "You four will head out with Kakashi's nin dog, Pakkun, and try to pick up Ino's scent."

Shikamaru nodded. "Then we follow that as far as we can go and pick up clues. Maybe someone saw something."

"Exactly. If you guys don't have enough progress in a week tops, then you must come back. Understood?"

Everyone gave a nod, and Sakura stood up, sighing. "I'm going to go take a walk. Meet me at the gate in an hour, right before you leave, okay Naruto?"

"Sure thing, Sakura!"

Sakura gave her enthusiastic friend a thankful smile and headed out of the room. She knew Tsunade and Shikamaru were watching her with suspicion. They probably thought she would go meet Zetsu, but that was probably conflicting with the thought that she wouldn't dare.

The only problem is, that wasn't true.

Sakura had a determined look in her eyes as she headed out of the village, hiding in the shadows so that no one questioned what she was doing. Finally she made it to the forest and headed into it, towards the clearing where she had met Zetsu months ago.

She felt a familiar chakra nearby, and she clenched a gloved fist, chakra glaring radiantly all around it.

--

A quiet noise of sobbing echoed through the small metal walled torture room that Sakura had been in several weeks before this day. The prisoner in the room wasn't in chains, but was in the corner, her knees drawn to her chest and her arms wrapped tightly around her legs. The only sign of binding was the glowing binds around her wrists, which cut off all of her chakra.

_**Sniffle, sniffle**_

"Stop that noise, girl. Yeah." Deidara snapped from the other side of the room. "You're annoying me."

He was in fact, pretty frustrated, though it wasn't only her sobbing that was frustrating him.

He hadn't raped her like he had planned. When she had woken up, she had immediately asked where she was. When he told her, she mere blinked, and then asked him if he still needed help with his injury. He had been surprised, and decided she must be kind of messed up to ask that after learning she was in the territory of the enemy. But she had scoldingly told him she cared about the well being of people who asked for help.

So here he was pacing, wondering why she wanted to heal someone who kidnapped her.

Granted, Deidara wasn't actually injured, but still.

When he had told her exactly what he was doing with her, she had tried to fight, but he had backed her into the corner and forced a kiss upon her. When she started crying, it hadn't disturbed him at first, until his heart squeezed in his chest uncomfortably and he had retreated to another part of the room, leaving her to sob.

He wasn't exactly the most heartless of the group. He was really new, and still had a heart. He had been a respected artist who cared for his customers back before he was brought in here. But when he got here and got rough treatment, he had turned self reliant and decided he had to be cruel like his teammates if he was going to survive here.

So he had lost most of his moral compass, but it was still there.

So now what did he do?

He could just wipe her memories and let her be on her way, but he'd get a lot of criticism from his teammates. Unless they didn't know.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Ino snapped, trying to stop the tears. But he had scared her so much, she couldn't stop. "You've kidnapped me and you plan on doing such disgusting things to me! Either hurry it up or let me go!"

"Sorry, love, got a job to do."

"Don't call me that!"

Deidara sighed in annoyance. She was feisty, and as he said earlier, gorgeous. He should just do what he brought her here to do. But then he wouldn't be able to have anymore fun later, not if he hurt her now. Maybe he could keep her here. There was no way those Konoha ninja would find their hideout since they didn't even know what way to head.

"Change of plans, love." Deidara ignored her frustrated scream. "I think I want to keep you." Her eyes widened in horror. "So... No need to damage your body."

Her tearful look turned furious. "You can't keep me here! They will come looking and they will find me!"

"We'll see, love, we'll see."

--

Shikamaru walked through the door of his house, ignoring the sympathetic looks his mom and dad send him as he walked upstairs. By this point his mom would be nagging him to finish his chores. Just because he was a Chuunin now didn't mean he didn't have responsibilites at home, his mother always told him.

Thankfully they could tell he was having a hard time with this, so they were both leaving him alone. His dad wasn't even teasing him about his relationship with Ino, thank god. Even if he didn't have more then friendly feelings for her, he'd be this worried. She was one of his best friends, tied with Chouji.

She was almost as troublesome as his mother, always scolding him for smoking or being lazy, but she only did this out of concern for his well being. Smoking wasn't good for the lungs, and being lazy definetely didn't help your physical condition much. Come to think about it, she scolded Chouji for eating out of concern too. She cared too much.

Shikamaru stood in front of his dresser, staring down at an array of pictures on his nightstand. One of him and his parents a few months ago. His mom made them take a new one every year. One of him and his teammates, including their sensei, Asuma. Ino was in the middle of the two boys, her hand on Shikamaru's chest. He was to her left, his arm around her waist. Chouji was beside him, his arm around Ino's shoulders. Asuma stood behind, a hand affectionately ruffling Ino's hair.

The cameraman had chosen their positions. He said they were one of the cutest teams he had taken a picture of that day, so he wanted them to have as cute a pose as possible. Ino had been enthusiastic, as had Chouji. Asuma had just laughed, and when Shikamaru didn't really seem to care, Ino snapped at him that he was going to do what the cameraman said.

And frankly, it was too troublesome to argue with that woman.

Hehe, not that he had been complaining or anything. He had enjoyed holding her like that.

Shikamaru sighed and got out his travelling bag. He packed some extra clothes and snacks (mostly for Chouji). He filled his weapon pouches with some extra shuriken, kunai, and exploding bombs and tags. He also grabbed some food pills just in case. He wasn't going to want to stop that often. Ino was too important. But that didn't mean he wouldn't stop to regain some energy once in a while.

He hoisted his bag onto his shoulders and saw that he had 30 minutes to go. That and some change since Sakura had to speak to Naruto. Shikamaru would've protested, but he was hoping she was going to tell Naruto about Zetsu.

Naruto would definetely be upset, because it was obvious to anyone with eyes that he was crazy for her, but he was the only person in this village who wouldn't scold her about it like Tsunade, Ino, and Shikamaru had.

"Ino..." Shikamaru murmered suddenly.

He looked out the window at the bright sun, realizing there were no clouds up. The sun must be blocking them all. How ironic. Clouds were peaceful, yet there wasn't a single one in the sky. Shikamaru wished there were so that they could tell him if Ino was okay.

He turned to the door and headed out.

"I'm coming for you."

--

Zetsu walked down the road to the little clearing right outside Konoha where he ha first found Sakura training.

He sat down in front of the lake and stared at it, trying to ignore the complaints his second half was barking out.

Should he have gotten Deidara to do that? Knowing him, he wouldn't pull through with his original plan. He was too new and not yet used to that kind of cruelty. But that was besides the point. Ino would end up hurt, and Sakura would figure out what was going on.

_Will she hate me?... Why am I even asking? Of course she will._

It was a little too late to be regretting this kind of decision but he was. It had been a while since Ino had found out his and Sakura's secret, and yet he hadn't been revealed yet, so there was a chance she really was planning on keeping her mouth shut. Which meant he had made the wrong decision.

He thought of going back and taking Ino back, but he knew Deidara would tell Pein on him.

_This is complicated. I got her kidnapped for no reason, and Sakura is never going to speak to me again_

_Hehe, that's what you get for getting involved with such a prude._

_Leave Sakura alone. She's an amazing woman. I was lucky to her heart, even when I'm who I am, and now I've ruined it_

Zetsu huffed and was about to stand up, but he heard a cold voice behind him.

"Ah, there you are, Zetsu-kun."

He turned his head slowly, eyes widening. "S-Sakura..."

**xD It's funny everyone thought this is where the rape came in. Nopes. That's still a while for now, but it does have to do with Ino. I just prefer putting all the warnings now so you can stop reading the story ahead of time. There will be a time skip in a few chapters btw.**

**And I'm really sorry this is so short, and that I keep switching POVs. Not counting the authors notes, there is 3,368 words. That's pretty good, right?**


	17. 16 Confrontation

"Sakura..."

Zetsu and Sakura stared at each other for a long time. Sakura didn't have a very inviting look on her face, and Zetsu didn't have an expression at all after his intial shock wore off. He had no idea she would find him, especially not so soon. How had he let his guard down?

"Where's Ino?"

Zetsu stood his ground. He wasn't afraid of Sakura, they both knew he could kill her in a minute. But he knew she must have back up somewhere, although she had come to him alone.

Sakura waited patiently for an answer, staring at him with a scowl. She had asked Shikamaru if she could confront Zetsu alone to see if he'd cooperate, and if he tried to attack, everyone would come forward with no mercy and beat the information out of him. Sakura knew that he had Ino somewhere.

"You had your teammate kidnap her so that your bloody secret wouldn't get out!" Sakura yelled angrily. "She was my best friend, you better not have hurt he?"

Zetsu hardened his eyes. "I told you, I'm a criminal. I have strong feelings for you, I already told you that, but they can't get in the way of my job."

Sakura's eyes widened, and then lowered sadly. She glenched her fist and looked down, keeping tears from coming out. This felt just like it did when Sasuke left her. They both had cold words for her. But this time, she wasn't going to let it happen. This time the stakes were higher. Before, just Sakura's heart was threatened. Now, Ino was in on it as well.

"I don't care about your stupid feelings!" Sakura replied. She was lying. She did care. "I just want Ino back..."

Zetsu frowned and looked up into the trees where he knew her teammates were waiting to attack. He sighed. He wanted to tell her everything, but he knew that Pein was close to killing him already for his treachery. He knew that if he messed up this time, Pein would destroy him.

"I... I don't know what to do."

Sakura's will wavered a bit at Zetsu's words. His voice and his eyes were broken. She noticed that he didn't look or feel hostile, that he was just confused. He had been in the Akatsuki for as long as he knew, and his resolve was crumbling because of her, but he knew he couldn't betray them without dying. So what was he to do?

Sakura pointed at him, "You are being a coward! You should fight. The stuff you guys do is wrong. And you know it. You just do it because it's all you know. But there's more to life than this. There are people who would accept you."

Zetsu shook his head. "After what I've done, I don't think so."

From up above, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sai, and Shikamaru watched from above, not sure how to react to this situation. They didn't have second thoughts about killing this guy. Ino was their friend, and they wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone in there way. They knew it would be hard going against Akatsuki, but they weren't going to abandone her. Sakura was down there trying to reason with Zetsu.

'Sakura-chan...' Naruto thought silently in his head. 'What are you going to do?'

Sakura gritted her teeth, unsure of how to proceed from here on. "It doesn't matter, if you don't tell me where you're keeping Ino, we're all going to attack and fight our way in."

Zetsu was silent, mulling things over. Then he slowly smiled. Sakura waited in anticipation.

"Fine, I'll show you. There's no way I can defend myself against all of you anyway, and you guys stand a lesser chance if I bring you in... Meh, I'll tell leader that anyway."

Sakura was surprised at Zetsu's answer. He just made an excuse to let them in without getting himself into trouble. She wasn't sure if it would work, but she didn't care. She had to think about Ino right now, not zetsu.

Naruto and the others wasted no chance, they darted out of the trees and landed safely next to Sakura, all glaring at Zetsu with cold, judgmental eyes. Zetsu flinched and walked over to a plant, pulling up on it's root. The ground caved in and slowly a small entrance began to reveal itself from the ground.

Everyone stepped forward, aiming for the entrance into the Akatsuki lair.

And the fight began.

A/N: Hey guys, I don't even know if I have any readers left lol. Either way, this is avery short chapter but I wanted you guys to know I didn't forget about it, although it's been HELLA LONG, like omg long. Sorry about that. My writing style is a bit different, now that I think about it, this isn't even that great of a story, but if you guys still like it, I'll keep writing.


	18. 17 Choices

Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sai weren't sure if they could trust Zetsu. They certainly didn't like turning their backs on him, leaving themselves vulnerable to any attack he might throw at them. But their main concern was finding Ino and keeping her safe.

Naruto and the others came to a slow run, noticing no one was attacking them. In fact, they didn't even see anyone in there. Naruto looked behind him to see Sakura trailing behind them, and Zetsu was further back, but walking with them almost.

Zetsu answered their concerns, "They're leaving you to Deidara. That's where the girl is. They will jump in if Deidara fails."

"Grr." Sakura growled. "That means even if we get Ino, we're pretty much screwed."

"Doesn't matter!" Shikamaru said. "Asuma-sensei wouldn't leave Ino to die. And I won't either."

He pushed forward again, breaking out into a run, although he had no idea where he was going. But he pushed on, letting his gut lead him to a room at the end of the first hall.

"Open up!" Shikamaru called. There was no answer. Just muffled noises. Shikamaru recognized Ino's voice, she must be gagged. "That's it-!"

Shikamaru pulled his fist back, ready to break down the door, but Zetsu caught it, a c reepy smile on his face.

"It's polite to knock." There was a pause. "Go on, try it."

When Shikamaru didn't respond, Sakura pushed forward and knocked loudly on the door, almost creating a few cracks in it. There were footsteps and the door opened. Someone Naruto recognized peered through.

"I... It's you!" Naruto cried, rage immediately filling his tone. This man had been the one to torment Gaara.

"Yeah. What do you want, hmm?" Deidara asked casually, as if he wasn't the evil guy who had kidnapped a Konoha ninja. "My pet?"

"Pet?"

Deidara looked behind him, frowning. "Hmm, so you broke out of the tape I put on your mouth, eh? Whatever, just shut up, yeah."

"Ino!" Shikamaru cried, moving forward. Deidara put a foot in his way.

All three guys immediately poised, ready for a fight. Deidara merely grinned and shoved the door open all the way, inching back a bit.

"You want a fight?" Deidara tilted his head. "Well you're gonna get it."

"This is an outrage!"

The council elders stared calmly at the enraged Tsunade, who was standing up, towering over them with a frightening look on her face. The elders didn't blink and instead just shrugged.

"She has betrayed our village by associating with this criminal." The elder woman replied. "She should be stripped of her status."

Tsunade shook her head furiously. "We need a medical ninja like her! Besides, what proof do you have of anything besides a confession? The villagers will never agree to that!"

The elder man frowned. "This guy is a member of the Akatsuki, surely you aren't going to defend her?"

"She's my student and all she did wrong was make a few bad choices, she's just a teenager. Teenagers make those choices sometimes. You can't punish her that severely for merely kissing a guy! She didn't give up any information on our village."

The council stayed silent, narrowing their eyes in concentration. They weren't going to get the Hokage on their side, and they knew they couldn't do much without her support, or without the support of the villagers.

"Very well." The woman replied. "We'll let it slide this once, but she has to bring that criminal in willingly."

Tsunade clenched her fist as she stared at them in surprise. She expected more of a fight, and this was a weird compromise."

"What makes you think he'll come?"

"Well, if there is a relationship, he'll do what she wants. He'll crack eventually, he will want to be with her."

Tsunade replied, "And what, pray tell, is the point of this?"

"He's a dangerous criminal, obviously a good asset to Akatsuki." The elders responded back. "Once we have him in our trap, we'll sic Ibiki on him."

Tsunade sighed and moved over to the couch, sitting down. She put her head in her hands, thinking about the compromise. It was better than punishing Sakura for falling under his spell. Plus, it would really show what Zetsu was willing to do for Sakura. Maybe they could change him and have him work for Konoha.

Tsunade slowly looked up.

"Fine. I'll tell her."


End file.
